GEORGE Davies' Globe letter in response to mine demonstrates finally the degree to which Wirral residents have been let down by this council ... and previous councils.

The 20,620 sites with planning permission for building clearly explicit in Phil Davies' letter to the housing minister in January were a mirage.

First we had the "wicked Government" referred to by George Davies attacking our Green Belt and now the Peel Group who, to the "surprise and frustration" of the council, have pointed out to the Government that actually they only ever intended to build on 2,700 of the 13,521 sites under their control with planning permission.

Has our naive council been stitched up by the developers or is somebody being economical with the truth?

Either way, Wirral residents are being poorly served.

In his final thrust George Davies yet again conflates the issue of the council's legal, statutory duty to produce a Local Plan (some 18 years late) with the Green Belt issue.

I repeat: We are being softened-up for some hard decisions forced upon residents by decades of council incompetence and neglect.

I have written and circulated an independent analysis of Green Belt sites in my own neighbourhood using the criteria defined by the council itself and and I urge local action groups to do the same in their areas and lobby local councillors as we are doing.

Professor D P Gregg (retired), Spital