All Hertfordshire residents should be aware of the furore raging in Hertford over new housing because it is about to hit them.

The Conservative administration of the county council has employed five different consultants to survey every possible corner of the county town, to identify possible sites for future housing.

The furore occurred when people became aware that the 250 sites included allotments, green spaces, car parks, back gardens and even knocking down houses on larger sites to build blocks of flats.

The Conservative chairman of the environment committee said about the results of the survey: 'No site could or should be ruled out.'

In effect the five consultants were in a competition to see which one would win the lucrative county council contract to extend the survey to all other towns in the county.

There is no doubt that more homes are needed in Hertfordshire. Increasingly key workers like teachers, nurses and police cannot afford escalating house prices. Our own young people are having to leave.

But when Labour led the county council, once every district council had found that towns were full up, we identified a major sustainable development, initially containing 3,600 homes, to the west of Stevenage.

It was a relatively small part of the county and the scheme had general support. It was the Conservative leader of the county council, who lives close by, along with a wealthy 'not in by back yard' campaign, who opposed it.

We all want use of brown-field (previously developed) land first and green-field last, but not to the extent of bringing about town cramming.

But this is what the Conservative's seem to be doing. They are sitting on their hands doing absolutely nothing about west of Stevenage.

What we challenge the Conservatives to do now is pledge that their survey of every possible site for future housing in every town in Hertfordshire will be carried out in public with participation of all local people.

There must be no secrecy. If they really want to abandon west of Stevenage and put all the housing inside existing towns, residents really need to be asked whether it's their back gardens, green spaces, allotments, or what they are prepared to give up.

Councillor Brian York,

Labour environment

spokesman,

Beechwood Avenue,

St Albans.