SIR – If the Council’s treatment of the BRAiD group’s protest against the Buck Lane development is anything to go by, then God help the future of democracy in this city.

After almost three years of battling against the faceless bureaucrats and planners at City Hall, a tiny band of sincere citizens (with virtually no funding other than their own pockets), and at least 1,700 people who signed the BRAiD petition, are swatted like flies by the Council after an incredibly generous 15-minute debate in full Council, and an even more generous five whole minutes allowed to present their case.

The Council, with it’s very highly-paid servants of us all – the ratepaying voters – and its seemingly limitless resources of finance, lawyers, planners, administrators, number crunchers, bean counters and developers has completely ignored the wishes of the public and the Baildon Parish Council and the Ward Councillors without so much as a presentation of their reasons or even a discussion over a cup of tea.

The deplorable flouting of the democratic process by Bradford’s Council must be a warning to all such protest groups, (think Menston, Sty Lane, Westfield, Odeon et al) that if they expect to get a fair, transparent hearing of their case then they are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

D Walker, Hollin Head, Baildon