Throughout the country, the number of homeless people has been rising steadily. Can you imagine that?

And...listen to this, first time buyers are having enormous difficulty getting onto the housing ladder...who’d have thought it?

Well everyone except those inhabiting the Westminster bubble where reality rarely penetrates.

Nett immigration has been running at around 280,000 annually. That’s a new city the size of Nottingham every year.

Where did they think those people were going to live? Did it not occur to anyone in Whitehall that many of those individuals would end up sleeping rough?

Our Prime Minister expresses her frustration with construction companies land-banking instead of developing approved sites. Where has she been for the past 30 years? It’s the norm for house builders to ‘starve’ the market until prices rise thus producing much higher profits.

Successive Governments have failed to introduce any mechanism into the system requiring house builders do anything more than sit on the land.

Surely insisting developers pay full council tax on any houses not completed by a contractually determined date would be an obvious move to get new homes on the market?

There is one topic I believe we all agree on, the absolute need for more affordable homes yet in Mrs May’s target for 300,000 homes to be built each year she designates only 10 per cent of these need be ‘affordable.’ So the cat is finally out of the bag - ‘affordable’ homes are little more than a smokescreen and those families in desperate need will be no better off after this land grab than they were before.

I am still unable to find anyone to justify the population growth needed for the extra 36,000 new homes by 2030 Cheshire East insist we build. Looks increasingly like a figure pulled out of a hat.

As for the infrastructure to support 36,000 new homes per year...the silence is deafening.

CONSULTATIONS HAVE NO CREDIBILITY

If, like thousands of others, you have taken part in a ‘public consultation’ in the development of your town, village or neighbourhood how do you feel about the outcome? Has your faith in the democratic process been enhanced by the experience?

If you live anywhere near Stanneylands or Adlington Road in Wilmslow your confidence is probably zero.

These were both heatedly discussed developments where, short of throwing themselves under a horse at the Grand National, residents could not have expressed their opinion in a more forceful manner.

The net effect of all their involvement was zero. For all the good it did they may as well have dropped their letters of protest down a grid.

Now we hear that should councils fail to meet their house building targets specified by Downing Street their planning authority may be taken over by a Government inspector who will ensure targets are met.

Theresa May was forced recently to admit to fighting tooth and nail to block thousands of new homes in her Maidenhead constituency. She wasn’t so keen on Government housing targets then.

So here’s my point, why bother holding ‘public consultations’ or inviting neighbourhood plans when the Government has already specified the answer?

Clearly, it’s little more than a sop to residents and local councils who want to appear to be in control when in reality they are largely superfluous.

I accept councils may have the power to approve or reject minor changes but the overall result is out of their hands (like usherettes at the cinema they have no control over the feature film.) Cheshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner recently claimed that more than 70 per cent of residents responding to his public consultation supported his request for an extra five per cent increase in the police precept.

Out of a population of just over one million how many residents do you think responded? According to the Commissioner it was 1,900 or 0.02 per cent.

How many knew there was a public vote? I did and when I accessed the Cheshire Police website to cast my own the option was not available.

My point is that unless you were ‘in the know’ and had the persistence to continually revisit the website the whole ‘consultation’ would have passed you by.

What sort of ‘public consultation’ is that?

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER EMERGENCY

Owners often call me for ‘urgent’ help with their dog immediately after some distressing incident. The traumatised caller usually launches straight into the story without any preamble. So when I answered the phone to a lady yelling, “He’s broken his shoulder...he’s pulling...pulling,” I knew where this was going.

“He’s pulled him over in the road...he’s in hospital...”

“Who is?”

“Eric.”

“Is that your husband?”

“No that’s Norman...”

“So who’s Eric?

“The dog.”

“Your dog?”

“Yes, he’s pulling all the time.”

I took her address and agreed to go round first thing in the morning.

On arrival I rung the bell and the door opened about an inch.

“Are you that Dogfather chap?”

“Yes, may I come in?

"He’ll pull you.”

"Yes I know that’s why I’m here. Can I meet Eric?"

“He’ll pull you...”

“Just let me meet him.”

She opened the kitchen door slowly and there sitting by the oven was the largest husky I’d ever seen.

I spent a couple of hours with her explaining the dog’s breed. As I left she said it was a too much to remember and could I give her one important thing to tell Norman when he returned from hospital.

“Tell him not to take Eric out in the snow.”

“Why not?”

“He'll probably end up in Hull.”

Email vicbarlow@icloud.com or text 07590 560012.