Sir – Regarding the story “‘We’ll be over-run’ claim as 114 homes approved” (Craven Herald, March 14). Can any councillor or even MP in this country, see that it is not a shortfall in housing that is the problem but an excess of population?

One doesn’t need too big a brain to work out that if the population keeps growing at the rate it is, plus further immigration adding to this, we will need to house a lot more people.

However, building more and more houses on agricultural land to accommodate this expanding population reduces the amount of land available to produce food to feed this expanding population.

In addition to more and more houses, the local infrastructure, such as schools, shops, medical provision, utility services and additional roads, needed to service this housing and its inhabitants, has to increase proportionately, taking up yet more land.

The more land that is concreted over creates more surface area where water can’t drain away and thereby increases the risk of flooding.

The more houses and necessary infrastructure creates more need for energy at a time when the ability to provide energy in this country is very questionable to say the least.

And, of course, the logical conclusion to all this is an island comprising more bricks, mortar and tarmac than natural earth, that can’t feed itself to live and can’t provide enough energy to survive, where the population will eventually die out from starvation and cold and disappear under the floodwater which will have nowhere to soak away.

Sounds a bit drastic perhaps, but if the people in power, from parish councillors to Government ministers, allow it to go on then that is where we will end up.

We have to stop the profligate breeding of children as a lifestyle choice paid for by the taxpayer and reward hardworking people who only have the offspring they can afford to bring up.

Also, we must curtail immigration until the population of the country reaches a level where we still have sufficient land to produce at least 70 per cent of our own food and a large percentage of our own energy.

If we can’t meet these figures then allowing the population to increase and continually building to house it will only end in disaster.

Paul Morley, Long Preston