“A plague on both your houses!” Romeo and Juliet’s Mercutio cries as he curses the houses of Capulet and Montague. Looking at the way both local and national government are dealing with housing and development in our town, it’s hard not to sympathise with the sentiment.

The Conservative national government has created chaos in trying to reform the planning laws, being forced to jettison its “top-down developers’ charter” once the electoral consequences of it were felt in the Chesham and Amersham by-election in June.

Meanwhile, the local Liberal Democrat-run council points the finger of blame at Conservative targets yet demonstrated sheer incompetence by failing to fight the housing targets imposed on Watford in the summer, holding up their hands and surrendering instead.

Let that sink in for a moment, the local Liberal Democrats are complaining about housing targets they could have challenged but didn’t bother to do so.

The “Taylor’s Towers” that are springing up all over our town are approved by the council’s own planning committee! It’s no good trying to pretend it’s someone else’s fault when you’ve been in charge of what can and can’t be built for 20 years.

The Labour Party has stood shoulder to shoulder with residents here and across the country in opposing plans to remove their right to object to the building of slums, eyesores and other inappropriate buildings on our streets or public spaces.

As Sir Keir Starmer said at the Labour Party Conference in September, “Get a grip or get out of the way.” As we head towards local elections in May of next year, if you vote for more of the same, you will get more of the same – only taller! It’s time for change.

Matt Turmaine

Labour Councillor, Holywell Ward