IN RESPONSE to the claims of Cllr Jagdish Sharma that Hounslow Council's planning committee is institutionally racist and victimising a section of the community (Chronicle, June 5).

I wonder if he would like to clarify what section of the community he is referring to, is it for example: Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, white, black, Polish or Icelandic. After all, Hounslow is a hugely multicultural borough.

Maybe it's the Punjabi community that, according to Alan Keen MP, received the blind eye preferential treatment under the Labour-led council for many years.

If this is the case then this racially-motivated practice is being addressed and the people benefiting from it are being brought to book.

Although I suspect it is a much wider section involved. But, as I have already said, it's down to Cllr Sharma to clarify.

I think his action and remarks are very childish, unhelpful and amount to racism in themselves.

In September last year, Cllr Barbara Reid met me for a mini-tour of the dozens of inappropriate extensions and outbuildings, as it happens within a half-mile radius of Cllr Sharma's home, and she was shocked and appalled at what she saw.

So, unless Cllr Sharma walks around with his eyes shut, he can not fail to see the scale of abuse going on.

And if he is not aware, I can tell him that a vast number of these illegal extensions are not used by the extended family but as a money-making exercise in the form of cash-in-hand lets.

I suggest that Cllr Sharma has a look in his local shop windows at the hundreds of rooms and so-called flats/bedsits to let, many by the way discriminating against benefit claimants by requesting no DSS.

The truth is that there are plenty of people who are pestering councillors to let them join the blind eye club but, unfortunately for them, the committee has been disbanded and the club closed down.

IAN WESTOLL Belgrave Road, Hounslow.