Mrs Day’s complaint about East Devon District Council’s “sloppy admin” (Journal, November 18) was defended by an EDDC spokesman in 166 words. There was no apology. It cost a mere �4,299. He/she said it was “refreshing” to admit a mistake and seek to put it right.

Not so - a second mistake! The corrected dates for landfill collection along my road were identical to the original ones.

The Core Strategy – Full Consultation Document is so long (141 pages) that few will read all of it. The Summary Document (19 pages) does not cover all the controversial proposals. A panel of officers, councillors and un-named persons have worked at it behind closed doors for some three years.

A special meeting of the Development Management Committee was held on August 17, ahead of the consultation starting on September 5. A table of housing figures was presented to councillors and the public and posted on the internet for all to see. This table shows the numbers of houses with planning permission (2006-2009) and the numbers proposed to be built by 2026. Numbers of affordable homes are given in separate columns.

Some of the figures for affordable homes struck me as most unlikely. I wanted to check I wasn’t suspecting inaccuracies where there were none. On November 4 I emailed a senior EDDC officer to confirm the accuracy of several figures, one in particular. He replied promptly and with admirable openness that my most suspected figure was definitely wrong and the others all need to be checked. When I rang him 10 days later, he said the corrections would not be completed for a few weeks yet (ie after the end of consultation).

All this does not inspire confidence, “refreshing” as it may be that mistakes are admitted.

(Dr) Anita Jennings,

Northview Road,

Budleigh Salterton.