Last night at the Town Council meeting there were three bits of news which taken together really make you wonder. First a Planning application for 14 dwellings on the London Road site of the now closed NHS Disabilities Unit. Second a Planning application to convert Rock Hill House along Albion Street into eight flats and build ten new dwellings in the garden. And lastly the news that agreement has been reached between the landowners of the "burgage plots" - which are the strips of land or long gardens which run between the High Street and Albion Street (or Back Lane as it is more prosaically known on this map) - and that applications for the development of these plots will start arriving in a few months time. As part of a comprehensive plan there will be some major community benefits including a new library. The White Hart development - nearly finished - will be getting its first residents soon. All in all Albion Street - which is not exactly designed for heavy traffic is going to be stretched way beyond its reasonable capacity. The junction at the London Road end is already dangerous. Children going to St Mary's have a terrible time getting across all the roads. There is no pedestrian crossing and no crossing lady. The turning for traffic out of Albion Street into London Road is getting more hazardous each week. Within a year or so we are going to see the complete redevelopment of the Hospital and Castleview sites with lots more dwellings making this huge junction even busier (and more polluted). At the other end of Albion Street the junction by the Ace Centre has been made more cramped and difficult by a new rash of crossings, speed humps and railings. Watch two HGVs trying to pass each other there! The rush to cover every last bit of green in the town with concrete is probably unavoidable given the price of land and the desperate need for homes in the South East. But what nobody seems to be yet facing up to round here is the huge extra demand which all these new homes are placing on public services - roads, education, recreational, health. The Local Plan for the next ten years which has  been up in front of Inspectors for the last year is now out of date again. Chippy is already feeling the pinch and will soon be bursting at the seams. Time perhaps for a pause and some sensible forward planning. Fat chance!