Mike Penning spoke in a Parliamentary Debate called by St Albans' MP, Anne Main yesterday.

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, took part yesterday in a special debate on housing proposals for Hertfordshire yesterday.

The debate highlighted the dangers of arbitrarily allocation housing development totals without planning the proper infrastructure to go with it.

The new houses being forced on areas such as Hemel Hempstead totally disregard the fact that existing infrastructure cannot cope and in the cases of the hospital and primary schools are being closed.

Mike said:

”At a time when we are celebrating 60 years since the start of the new town in Hemel, it is irresponsible to plan to increase the size of the town by up to a third without building the infrastructure first.

“Much of the infrastructure will not be able to cope, transport and water in particular.”

“The new town was designed to be surrounded by green fields – to start building houses on the greenbelt goes against every natural instinct” he added.