We were surprised to read his parroting of the tired claim that the campaign by the local community to preserve Petts Wood is somehow just NIMBYISM.

For local families, both longstanding and newly arrived, the area has provided a wonderful home where we could enjoy the trees and woodland areas that have been allowed to grow, or watch the foxes, kestrels and countless other birds and animals that regularly come into our gardens thanks to the habitat provided by Petts Wood.

Like Mr Bland, many of us could have benefited financially from selling our homes, or just parts of our gardens, to Redworth Homes.

However, to the residents involved in the Petts Wood campaign, financial gain is not everything and consequently we have united as a community to preserve something that is much more valuable.

Mr Bland chose to make a substantial profit by selling his home and garden for construction, the rest of us have chosen to take a different stand.

Mr Bland likes to claim, as he did in his letter, that we are just protecting our "personal interests", but there is no doubt among local residents as to whom his allegation best fits.

Despite the claims by Redworth Homes made in the Scarborough Evening News that the concerns of residents have been incorporated into their attempts to improve on the failures of their previous proposals, we find that the same fundamental failings still exist.

These include the flooding risk, the intention to destroy a third of the protected trees, the inappropriate design of the homes, the damage to the residential amenity of a sensitive area of Newby and of course the destruction of a wildlife habitat adjacent to a Site of Nature Conservation Interest, namely Scalby Beck.

Rob and Anne Faley

Hackness Road

Scarborough