Nathan Louis’s article, “Watford Council ‘forced’ to agree action plan after failing to meet housing targets”, missed out important facts of which your readers, and indeed all Watford residents, should be aware.

Firstly the Lib Dem administration failed to keep the Local Plan up to date. The one they adopted just a few weeks ago arrived three years late - and this made Watford vulnerable to planning appeals.

And having not published a Local Plan for years, when they finally did get round to it they voted through a plan which failed to challenge or even mention housing targets, implicitly thereby accepting them. Even neighbouring Three Rivers District addressed the issue in their local plan (albeit poorly) so what was the Lib Dem council here in Watford thinking by saying nothing?

The reality is that councils can mitigate (i.e. reduce) national targets by arguing that their circumstances demand a lower level of building and challenging the standard numbers formally, in their Local Plan.

And they were warned. Our diligent local MP, Dean Russell, shared with councillors the confirmation he was able to gain on the record in the House of Commons from the Housing Minister himself: targets for housing needs are a starting point for negotiation through the Local Plan. But the Lib Dems voted through their flawed Local Plan anyway (a vote on which Labour merely abstained), and locked in high targets for Watford for the near future unnecessarily. These should have been challenged.

This gross incompetence, which will have serious consequences for the whole town and those of us who live here, is made worse by their revolting hypocrisy in trying to blame the Government and our hard-working MP for their own unacceptable failures.

Why won’t the Lib Dems do all they can to resist national targets?

Well, what the Lib Dems cover up locally, is that nationally they attack the Government for not building enough. At their recent party conference, they voted to increase the house building targets by over 25 per cent to 380,000 per year. This would mean an increase of about 200 homes per year for Watford.

The reality is that the Lib Dems love new high rise developments and the money that flows to the council from developers. It is the Lib Dem council that gave approval to the tall towers planned north of Watford Junction – locally referred to as Taylor’s Towers – despite using their power to reject developments elsewhere where they sit as local ward councillors. They approve new office tower blocks around Clarendon Road without hesitation - and there are no government targets to blame for these. These appalling mistakes are wholly and entirely their decision, their fault, and they should have the honesty to own up to it. And I for one will continue to challenge them to face up to facts, as well as fight for a better future for Watford.

Binita Mehta-Parmar

Conservative Mayoral Candidate for Watford