Fiona Marlow’s letter (Echo, 16 April) said that she found my comments offensive when I referred to the area of Curtis Fields as one big dog toilet.

Well, until such times as the area is fully developed and the open spaces provided in the plans are built and managed properly, it will continue to be used as a dog toilet.

She goes on to say that she would much rather have a bit of dog poo on the site rather than cover it all in concrete and bricks.

Well, that might be an option from the comfort of a house in Everest Road with commanding views over the area, but the concrete and bricks she refers to will be the homes of future residents.

As the brief holder for Housing on the Council, I make no apology for wanting to provide people with all types of new homes – including affordable ones – because for 20 years or more the country hasn’t built enough homes; Dorset hasn’t built enough and Weymouth & Portland certainly hasn’t planned for and managed to build enough.

Our local plan remains in limbo because we didn’t identify sufficient land for housing in the original plan.

Now over the last few days all of the major political parties have pledged to build substantial numbers of houses in their respective manifestos.

We could of course all sit about and await the outcome of the forthcoming general election and then wait again for the experts in Whitehall to tell us what to build and where to build it, with a series of top-down targets and figures, or we could get on with it locally and do something about it now. I prefer to do the latter.

That’s why I was in favour of and approved the plans for the Curtis Fields development.

Cllr Kevin Brookes

Brief Holder for Housing

Weymouth & Portland Borough Council