SIR – The Council planners are seeking to persuade the Council’s R&A Planning Committee to approve the building of 220 houses on green fields and brush under the carpet their “genuine mistake” (T&A, November 30) If the planners wish to be genuine and not conversely fake or counterfeit, they will, on the basis of the error which had to be pointed out to and admitted by them, withdraw their previous recommendation that the planning application should be approved.

This was based on a false premise and can have no legal status.

Planning decisions are far too important to be influenced by cobbled-together strategies seeking to cover up inherent incompetence.

This begs the question of what other mistakes have been made and whether decisions based on our planners’ recommendations can be legally ‘safe’.

John Pashley, Westcliffe Avenue, Baildon