DEVELOPERS Taylor Wimpey should be given a medal for bravery for their proposal to build some 300 homes on what has been dubbed ancient woodland near North Baddesley.

The national homes builder will not have been unaware of the response that such a proposal was likely to elicit.

No sooner have the plans been revealed than the opposition voices have been raised... in great volume.

Local councillors have joined with residents to condemn the plans as an assault on the very heart of the communities the border the woodland, some of which it is clear is not very ancient, but the passion is undoubtedly real.

All of this comes, ironically, as the Prime Minister this week told the Tory conference of the need to free up planning obstacles to help create hundreds of thousands of new homes nationally to ease first time buyers onto the home owning market.

Whether the PM had the ancient woodlands of North Baddesley in mind this paper cannot say, yet the example shows the difficulties faced by the government, the home building industry and communities that need more homes for their young people.