I’d be the first to admit I’m not brilliant at following the bureaucratic process. I do try but my brain struggles with the meandering narrative. Today I’m well and truly flummoxed (great word flummoxed, don’t you think?).

As I understand it Cheshire is desperate for new houses, so desperate in fact that swathes of green belt land must be acquired post-haste to accommodate the hordes of enthusiastic buyers besieging show homes across the county.

Yep, I get that, I’m okay so far.

As you know, this newspaper ran a series of interviews with a random group of people (basically anyone our reporters could nail) asking what they liked best about our town and top of everyone’s list was the surrounding countryside.

So, it seemed logical (to me) that great heart-searching must have been done within the council before they would even consider building on such sacred ground. Short of a Chinese-style edict limiting the number of children per family it’s impossible to think of a more contentious proposal than building on green belt. So the need must be overwhelming, right?

So, that’s where I was in my thinking…until today.

It now appears that far from overwhelming, the desire to build houses on sites ALREADY approved is at an all-time low. So low, in fact, that Cheshire East plans to dole out £1m of our money as an incentive to developers willing to make a start on the 6, 600 homes already approved plus an extra 2,000 currently under consideration. That, if I’m not mistaken, is 8,600 houses that could be built right away if developers had sufficient interest.

As for brownfield sites there is no mention.  So, now I’m totally confused. I’ve been studying domestic property markets for decades and I’ve seen great ups and downs but have never witnessed demand so low that councils offered financial incentives to builders. (It’s usually the other way around).

Imagine 8,600 plots lying idle. That’s a lot of houses no one wants to build plus dozens of inactive brownfield sites.  Why would Cheshire East distress and inflame every householder in the county by suggesting the need for a huge growth in development when no one wants to build on the plots already approved?

As I said at the outset, I’m not the greatest strategic thinker. Maybe someone will enlighten me?