REGARDING the aricle "Old maps help to pass flats scheme," (LET, April 20), once again, Hyndburn development services committee has been forced to approve a planning permission by the council's planning department.

Recently the local community has had forced upon them a housing development site at Church being sited near to Blythe Chemicals works, the One-2-One mast at Baxenden and now development of a greenfield site for housing in Marble Street, Oswaldtwistle.

The planning office told councillors that because buildings dating back to 1911 show on old maps, they have no option but to give the go-ahead.

Has the planning office read its copy of PPG3 government guidance, which states previously-developed land excludes "land that was previously developed but where the remains of any structure or activity have blended into the landscape in the process of time"?

The statement by planning officer Brent Clarkson -- "Admittedly, the remains of the buildings have blended well into the site" -- actually supports this definition of a greenfield site.

Furthermore, elderly residents continue to uphold the view that any building on the land around the 1911 period was in fact an open-fronted shelter for horses grazing on the land and was, therefore, never a permanent structure.

I can only reiterate the comment made by Coun Peter Britcliffe about the development services committee that "if all we are going to get is people coming along and saying that we have to approve it because guidelines say so we might as well not bother."

However, the planning office has not advised nor acted in accordance with guidance in the PPG3 document and has set the precedent that spurious arguments will ensure that planning permissions will always be approved without recourse to democracy or reason.

ELAINE HOGAN, Albert Street, Oswaldtwistle.