12 NOVEMBER 1948, Page 5

An answer given this week by the Minister of Town

and Country Planning about the village of Letcombe Bassett, in Berkshire, threatened with the evacuation of most.of its population because it is not large enough, successfully evades the whole issue. Mr. Silkin points out that a public inquiry must be held if a development plan provides that there should be no further development in a particular village. But at Letcombe Bassett it is not a question of no further development, but of moving most of the existing population else- where against their will. An official of the Ministry, I am told, has asserted that no community of less than 550 persons is economically permissible.. Here is a clear issue, and one well worth fighting.