LARGE-scale developments of housing in and around the Malvern area have always been contentious issues.

So it will be unsurprising if there is not controversy over the latest iteration of the South Worcestershire Development Plan, which has been unveiled this week.

More housing will always be needed, unless there is a drastic drop in the population growth rate, which seems unlikely without a China-style One Child policy, which is just too repulsively totalitarian to be considered.

So these houses will have to be built somewhere and the real question is: Where?

It's quite understandable that existing residents would not want to see the nice open fields bordering them to be covered in identical boxes.

But on the other hand, people complain that house prices in desirable areas are so high they young people are hard-pressed to get their foot on the property ladder.

The only way to bring house prices down is to build more of them, and they have to be built in areas where people want to live.

But the new developments have to be designed in a way that takes account of their environment, and that is where a great deal of difference can be made by the deployment of quality architecture and sensitive landscaping.

The houses that are built in the near future are likely to be around for several generation, and we owe it to our descendants to do the best job we can, for the sake of them, and for the sake of their own descendants.