The Mole, no its not a cold war spy novel, its the pub that will no longer be a pub at Monk Sherborne.

Now I couldn't really give a nut if its a pub or not, but the issue as published in last week's Gazette, shows what a complete load of rubbish planning permission in Basingstoke is.

You had councillors and 600 people wanting the pub to stay a pub. And the chair of the parish council saying the application to turn the pub into a home is in breach of the borough's planning policy. Well so what, who cares, obviously not the planning committee.

The point I am making is this, planning permission is nothing to do with the citizens who live in the area being discussed.

Democratic government does not include you having anything whatsoever to do with what happens around you. The council will say it consults residents on planning matters, perhaps it does, but then after the consultation its into the bin with that load of old cobblers, and, as Doris Day used to say, Kay Sera Sera (which is an American way of quoting a French saying that means what will be will be, in other words hard cheese).

So bye bye to the Mole, now what about a few more houses south of the motorway, I mean we haven't ruined that part of the borough much yet, its only fair, and they'll be worth a mint!

Brian Simmonds, Belmont Heights, Hatch Warren