Sir, Your front page article on April 21 highlights the fact that the flats at Abbey Place are in the way of the new Westgate development.

In 1986, I worked at the city council's housing department. My job was to develop housing development "briefs" for the council's new build projects. With the guidance of the county council's occupational therapists (city and county officers worked together better in those days) we recommended flats for people with physical disabilities on the ground floor and for "older" people on upper floors.

Twenty years later the council is now contemplating demolishing perfectly good accommodation which provides convenient homes for people close to the city centre with all the facilities that offers without having to get in a car. These days the buzz word in planning is "sustainability"; how can it be a sustainable way to behave to demolish perfectly good homes which have only been standing for 20 years?

Perhaps the council could explain to the people of Abbey Place why it was a good idea to build homes in 1986 to enable them to live conveniently close to the town centre, (which fits in well with the current planning policy to minimise car usage), but in 2006 it is considering demolishing them to make way for shops that will generate more traffic.

Perhaps they could ensure that all of the new homes promised as part of the Westgate centre will be built to "Lifetime Homes" standard so that people of all ages and abilities will find them convenient and accessible to live in.

In addition it could give a guarantee to the current residents of Abbey Place that they will have the opportunity to continue to rent new homes in the city centre at affordable rents so that they are not priced out of the market.

Twenty years ago the council was also committed to tenant participation in the design of new housing developments, but there doesn't seem to be much participation going on with the residents of Abbey Place despite the new planning laws that are intended to put community involvement at the heart of planning.

So much for progress, we seem to have gone backwards. The residents and tenants of Abbey Place would do well to form an action group and demand to be involved properly in the plans for the Westgate development, as is their right.

Rosemary Aldgate, Senior housing development officer 1986-88, Kennington