Sarah Todd: Let’s look at what the planning laws are doing before we change them

But if the Government has its way, we’re all going to have to get off our high horses and accept more housing in rural areas.

The powers-that-be propose reforming the planning laws, a move which organisations such as the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England fear will cause “irreversible damage” to country communities.

David Cameron and his team have vowed there will be no backing down on the overall thrust of the proposals, which encourages a policy in favour of applications and “sustainable growth”.

Chancellor George Osborne seems to have a particular bee in his bonnet and is determined to make changes to what he calls Britain’s “slow and inefficient planning system”. He thinks more building would provide a much-needed boost to the economy.

Objectors fear the reforms – slashing 1,000 pages of planning policy to just 52 – will allow developers to rip up vast acres of green fields.

In my mind, what’s needed before any major planning policy change is a really serious look at the state of Britain’s rural towns and villages. Are they thriving under the old system or are planning needs not being met?

For example, unless one of our children wins the lottery, it’s pretty impossible imaging them being able to afford to set up home in the village where we live and where they have grown up.

Do they have a right to do so? Or is it just “progress” that young locals are forced out of the communities where they have grown up?

It’s a bit of a sweeping generalisation, but the people who move in tend to be either retired or professionals who have chosen the fee-paying route.

It’s hard to admit to being a NIMBY but perhaps we owe the breed a debt of gratitude. The countryside might already look a completely different place without them.

We had some campers stay from the Gwili Steam Railway in Carmarthen. They had a wonderful busman’s (or railwayman’s) holiday taking in all of Yorkshire’s steam railways.

Before returning home they recommended a book for our son, Peter’s Railway, which tells the story of a young boy who lives in a cottage at the edge of his grandpa’s farm.

To make visiting each other more fun, they work together to build a miniature steam railway.

A copy arrived for his birthday the other day and it’s the best book for boys aged you could wish for.

Goodness knows what the planners would make of their railway …