Last week I wrote about a chaotic Burnley Council planning meeting I covered, and today I have just read how damage to forests, rivers and other natural resources in causing problems for the world's poor.

Obviously the two are not connected, but it does raise the problems of building or hunting to excess.

Many poor communities abroad rely on the environment to live, yet deforestation and over-fishing of the seas is causing big problems. It seems the forests and fishes are not being replenished quickly enough.

Closer to home, everyone will remember the terrible floods that swept across large parts of the Midlands and Southern England last summer devastating homes.

However, it turned out most of those houses had been built on flood plains. Yet, in July last year just when the flooding was causing havoc, the Government announced plans for three million new homes to be built, many on flood plains.

Many buildings, including homes and schools, are being demolished in Burnley as we speak. I wonder if any of those will be developed back into green space?

I strongly suspect they won't be. The likelihood is they will be sold on for further developments. We never hear of plans to create new parkland or playing fields.

Do we really need as many new homes as the Government thinks? There was a report recently that scores of apartments in Manchester are sitting empty. You only have to drive around the region's towns and even villages to see new houses and apartments being built. Even if they are not built on flood plains, the chances are the extra sewerage work needed for these houses will put pressure on the system.

This is all at a time when many first-time buyers simply cannot afford to buy their own homes. I wonder how long they will stand empty. Would it cause any harm to leave some land green?