It is too easy to blame the planning inspectorate for the extremely high number of planning appeals now being allowed in Croydon.

Councillor Chris Wright says that when inspectors overrule decisions made by councillors this makes democracy a laughing stock, implying that Croydon's poor performance must be the interfering hand of a Labour Government again.

No doubt as a result of such nonsense, Mr Harrison (Feedback, January 23) is led to believe inspectors favour developers. Actually neither is true.

The planning inspectorate is both independent and highly professional. In most cases they decide planning appeals on whether the local councillors have made their planning decisions in accordance with their own planning policies; if they have applied them correctly then appeals are normally dismissed.

This was the case when I was on the planning committee and why our appeal performance was good, as it still is in most authorities. The simple reason for the poor performance now is that planning decisions are often made based on political opinions rather than Croydon's well-worked-out planning policies.

Indeed, I see that costs were awarded against the council recently. This is not done just because the council lost the appeal but because they had acted unreasonably - in other words improperly - and cost taxpayers vast sums for their bad behaviour.

It is not the planning inspectorate that is making the Tory-run planning committee a laughing stock, Coun Wright and his cronies are quite capable of doing that all by themselves.

ALDERMAN ADRIAN DENNIS

(Chris Wright's predecessor and a town planner) Hunter Road, Thornton Heath