Many Watford people will be glad to see Liberal Democrat councillors vowing to halt an attempt to add a further seven storeys to a 17-storey tower already granted planning permission.

But many would ask why the party has only recently appeared to fight back against developers, with work on the 'mini-Manhattan' in St Albans Road now visibly under way.

Some will recall the debate over planning consent for that development lasted only 11 minutes.

Read more: Political rivals clash over where blame lies on Watford tower blocks

Both of Mayor Peter Taylor's challengers in the May 5 election say they would halt such towers, but Mr Taylor blames a planning system that he says gives power to developers, and further punishes councils who do not meet centrally-set targets by putting them under even more pressure to build more.

Conservative MP Dean Russell conveniently intervened on the afternoon the council was due to vote on the borough's next local plan claiming the targets were negotiable.

Tempers flared in the Watford Observer's online hustings on Facebook this week, with Mr Taylor asking Conservative Binita Mehta-Parmar to give one example of a council that had successfully challenged its housing targets.

Labour's Asif Khan says he would stop such towers - though it is not clear if this is possible.

As with much in politics, there may be a little truth in each of the claims. The test of what people believe will come at the ballot box.