I have followed the Falmouth "Rec" debate with great interest and there appears to be consensus between the various groups that the housing situation for families in Falmouth is desperate. However, I consider that groups supporting affordable housing on this land are in danger of sacrificing it for little gain and they should be targeting the authorities for the following reasons.

Much is made of the fact that Falmouth is bordered by the sea on two sides. A far more intractable and insurmountable growth factor is that Falmouth-Penryn is bordered by a neighbouring authority that appears to have little interest in assisting with our future growth or more housing on their border. Yet here we are landlocked by fields, most of which appear to be little used, but nothing is built: why? When are representatives from Carrick and Kerrier going to get together to resolve this fundamental issue? Can the boundary be altered or the local plan be changed? Surely this arbitrary border cannot be allowed to constrain development of one of Cornwall's biggest centres forever?

Furthermore, I would suggest this development plan has as much to do with reaching government targets for affordable housing in Falmouth as providing better sports facilities. But with over 700 local families looking for assistance how many are realistically going to be helped with the selling-off of the "Rec?" 50 families? Within weeks the numbers will be back up and we will all have lost a valuable green space forever, for no long-term benefit.

And not everyone has to buy! What is this mantra of "affordable housing?" I would suggest that those who have no hope of ever buying their own home need help most. In fact, what Falmouth-Penryn needs is a major programme of social and private and affordable house building - we need thousands of homes like Truro, Redruth and Camborne - not just a few. How is it that Truro, which has already had thousands of new houses, is to get thousands more? How come all the land around Truro is available for building and not around Falmouth-Penryn? Yet it is us who are hosts to the new university which has massively increased the pressure on local housing. Even Redruth and Camborne are having thousands of new homes built - where are ours?

This leads me on to the much bigger issue: you cannot put something as big as a university somewhere the size of Falmouth-Penryn without a major impact. With student numbers set to reach 6,000 at Tremough and on-site accommodation for only 2,000, upwards of 4,000-plus staff will have to live in the community. Where are they all going to live? In the absence of any other plans the answer must be in the existing houses. This is utter madness and common sense tells us this must be a major factor of the current situation in Falmouth-Penryn. We are already over-run and there are reports of students sleeping in their cars. On top of this, the Marine School is set to spend £7m moving and increasing their student numbers - yet with no mention of plans to provide any accommodation. In addition, there are talks to relocate many hundreds of Dartington College students here as well. I repeat: where are they all going to live? I am not against students (I was one myself once), it's really not their fault, but why is no one acknowledging a major cause of our housing shortage and massive hikes in purchase and renting prices? Anyone who lives here knows the truth - it's obvious! Yet there is no official recognition of this.

As the elected representatives of the people I must ask what our local councils are doing about it? (I wrote to the leader of Carrick district council and a month later I am still awaiting a reply.) Surely they should be petitioning up the political food chain to get them to either provide adequate on-site accommodation or release land for new building? Why should the government in effect be providing education on the cheap without adequate accommodation, therefore ultimately at our expense? There is plenty of room at Tremough, and with plans for another multi-million pound building for business development, obviously plenty of money.

Thousands of local residents have engaged on this issue and signed petitions in protest against plans for the "Rec" for many reasons. This is real democracy at work and shows the authorities that people do care about their community. Selling off our town's green spaces is going to do nothing to alleviate a chronic need for housing of all kinds. Someone, somewhere needs to make some big decisions about the future of this area and whilst a small patch of green in Falmouth is the current focus it really is not the issue and should not therefore be sacrificed.

ML, Falmouth (name and address supplied)