SIR — Regarding Barton Farm, I wonder how far our local council would go in subverting the will of the people who elect and pay them?

Irrespective of the argument that hardly anyone of ability would want to be a councillor, it must be clear to all of them that the people of Winchester strongly reject the development of 2,000 more houses on the city outskirts.

Whatever the flawed national government may dictate, there is nothing to stop the council refusing to obey them and making a scene that may well have induced a ceasefire until after the next election.

However, the 48 who voted for the development must be held to account. We must ask why they were so spineless in the dying days of a national government and why they think they should continue in office.

We must question the motives of these people: do they have minds of their own?

I would ask this newspaper to pursue the councillors, one by one, and demand an answer on how they voted. Any who refuse should be held to public account in this newspaper relentlessly.

Rousseau pointed out that the English are mistaken in thinking they are free.

It is only during an election, for one day, that they are so. In Winchester, at least, his words resonate.

Guy Bolwell, Sleepers Hill, Winchester.