I’M inclined to think that Eric Buckle is right when he suggests that the council’s extraordinary decision to stop the stadium development was the result of a well-organised campaign by a minority of people in the district.

As the owner of a local business, I agreed completely with the article by Michael Garvey which you published shortly before the decision was made by the cabinet and which explained why the stadium was good for Wycombe. I even wrote to Wycombe District Council at the time asking, among other things, why they had sent such a clear signal that the district doesn’t welcome outside investment. They didn’t reply but I am aware that they have since been working very hard since then on an economic development plan for our area. It was not just a case of losing the jobs that would have been generated directly, but also of losing all the indirect business that would have been generated as well, and this at a time when the council was already aware that the rate of job losses in the area was a major problem. For example, I saw a number of opportunities for my own events business arising from this development, but these were lost along with the stadium.

In your article you are careful to state that the poll you ran last year returned a 61% majority of the readers who responded in favour of scrapping the stadium. This result should be interpreted with great care. The opposition to the stadium was very well organised. Compare this with supporters for the stadium who were not similarly organised and the result could well be skewed towards those in favour of stopping the project. Here’s a challenge for you: arrange a survey of a representative sample of the people who live in Wycombe District and see if you get the same result.

After they are sold, Wasps will not continue playing in Wycombe district. Indeed, they cannot do so unless they can find a stadium which meets the RFU capacity requirements for a premiership rugby side. This means that Wycombe will lose the income that they generate for the area, all the community work that they do and Wycombe Wanderers will lose the financial contribution that they make to Adams Park. Some other district will gain from what seems to me to have been a short-sighted decision by the council.

I have been looking at the development plans for Handy Cross and the surrounding areas, but I can’t find anything about developing a large enough stadium. I find this puzzling because the Wycombe District Council’s own Wycombe for Business website states that “London Wasps Premiership rugby team play in High Wycombe” is one of the reasons that makes Wycombe good for business. Have a look at www.wycombeforbusiness.co.uk/investinwycombe.aspx if you’d like to confirm this!

It would be interesting to know how Wycombe District Council intend to make it possible for Wasps to stay here.

Jennifer Barnes, Cock Lane High Wycombe