Writer David Hare

• I SYMPATHISE with David Hare over the proposed kitchen extension and other building applications that are “changing the character” and making a Monopoly board of his neighbourhood (This street is not Monopoly, June 22).

He will have to move away if he wants to do any writing or breathe during the work. But he has a house. Imagine what it is like living in a flat above a kitchen extension. The drills feel like they are drilling through your head.

Here’s a call for immediate legislation: councils should raise a kind of automatic VAT on all extensions that they approve, but this will not go to the council that approves the nuisance.

The 20 per cent tax on the total refurbishment spend should go to a neighbours’ relief fund at least 24 hours before the building works begin. The money could be spent on staying in a hotel or at least hiring cleaners during the works.

Despite an obligation to do so, my neighbours’ builders never cleaned up after themselves during five months of hell and the dirt accumulated to worrying levels.

JOYCE GLASSER, NW3