Residents are rightfully up in arms over the scale and speed of housebuilding in and around Watford.

So now Westminster - with no experience of the travel, logistical or infrastructure issues will lean even harder on the town hall and county hall to bang in yet more homes.

This is what happens when you have an open door immigration policy.

It’s hard to know who could want being packed in like sardines.

Property developers must feel like it’s Christmas all year round as they fill their boots. Private landlords are quietly rubbing their hands with glee as they watch their rental incomes grow.

And of course Westminster and the local government is doing rather nicely out of collecting council tax from more and more households.

The rest of us just have to watch as that green oasis disappears, swallowed up by yet more concrete; the roads become ever more congested fume-filled canyons; the queues at the shops, doctors, hospitals get longer and longer; our roads get more potholed; precincts more crowded and unsafe.

Because of course, despite the extra revenues to the treasure coffer, there will be less commensurate expenditure on police, NHS, and general infrastructure.

But the political pundits will trumpet how well the books look.

Dave Degen

Whippendell Road, Watford