NEXT WEDNESDAY, August 3, one of the planning applications due to come before Lyme Regis Town Council's planning committee will be by the Lyme Regis Golf Club for the construction of a golf driving range and to extend the Car park at the club's practice ground overlooking the Harcombe valley.

The building would be 19 metres long (over60 ft) and include an office and storeroom.

Apart from the obviously important planning issues raised by this application due to the nature of the prominence and sensitivity of the site, there is another important issue to be considered arising from the council's ownership of the adjoining land - the highly controversial Strawberry Field.

The town council and the golf club are neighbours.

Could it possibly be right for the council to comment on its neighbour's planning application, particularly in view of the council's continuing ambition to develop the Strawberry Field?

The council can hardly claim to be impartial and to have no interest in the outcome of this application, since it is clear that permission to build on the practice ground could provide a precedent that would help towards achieving that ambition.

The council should therefore collectively declare an interest, and neither discuss nor vote on the matter. When it comes to be considered by West Dorset District Council, the same course should be followed by district (and town) councillors Ken Meech and Owen Lovell, both of whom, incidentally, played a key role in the town council's acquisition of the Strawberry Field.