I AM a Tutshill boy born and bred longing to get back to my roots but thus far have been unable to do so due to the crazily high prices of freehold property in Tutshill.

How thrilled my wife and I were then to recently read that Gladman Developments are applying for planning permission to build some 130 homes on land owned by Gloucestershire County Council and others on the other side of Elm Road.

Even better is the fact that a goodly proportion of these properties are to be affordable.

However, we now notice on the Forest of Dean Council planning website that quite a number of Tutshill residents have sought fit to object to the development probably on the grounds of 'pull the ladder up Jack, I'm alright'.

Do these objectors, many of whom are incomers to Tutshill, know what it is like for a man of Tutshill through and through to be precluded from returning to the village that he loves? To once again walk on the rec. and attend Tutshill church.

I have fond memories of being given pocket money by my grandmother, who lived on Coleford Road, to go and buy sweets from Henderson's, of my parents buying their meat from Mr Blandford's shop and of going with my dad to buy petrol from Bowen's garage. Many of the objectors would not even remember these tradespeople who lived in an age when local people mattered and formed the heart of this lovely village community.

It now seems that the village is represented by councillors who have settled in the area from far-flung places, purporting to be locals. I hope for our sake and the sake of many other Tutshill economic exiles, that the planners ignore the often unfounded objections in favour of the likes of us, who wish to put their hard earned savings into a long-term Tutshill home of our own.

– A J King, Bristol.