SIR – The unacceptable customs of some Bradford planning applicants and their supporters may be worse than Peter Palmer fears (Letters, September 12).

At last week’s meeting, after supporting the chairman’s trenchant condemnation of retrospective applications, I suggested that everyone around the table, officers and councillors, should be constantly asking. “How do we change the culture?”

Another abuse of the system is councillors from other wards speaking on behalf of people who are not their constituents. Last week a councillor from Bradford Moor who was not on the planning panel was given his five minutes to speak on the dormer application. He was given a retrospective reprimand! It is time for all parties on the council to ensure that this sort of inappropriate intervention has no place in our planning processes.

Councillor Geoff Reid (Liberal Democrat, Eccleshill), Woodfield Close, Bradford