The article quotes Dr Roger Smith of CPRE Sussex, who says, "This is about people power, people defending their communities from predatory speculators who seek to impose a massive and inappropriate development on countryside.” Georgia Wrighton, director of CPRE Sussex is also quoted as saying, developments “must be allowed to be debated locally, not foisted upon communities by have-a-go developers taking advantage of mixed messages from government.”
The article goes on to condemn planning policy that allows speculation on land at the expense of local democracy, suggesting that there is a major conflict of interest at the heart of this proposal. Lib Dem peer, Lord Matthew Taylor of Goss Moor, is one of the directors of the development company, Mayfields Market Towns, also sits on the Government panel currently revising national planning rules. When Sussex MPs Nick Herbert and Nicholas Soames previously raised this conflict earlier this year with Planning Minister Nicholas Boles, Boles had responded that, "I am satisfied that appropriate steps have been taken to avoid a conflict of interest. Any suggestion that he might somehow benefit as a consequence of his role on the review group is unfounded and unfair." However the Mirror article again raises calls for Lord Taylor to be "kicked off the group."