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Task 1 General · Formal letter · Community

Objecting to a development on public land

A formal objection to a local council, where the difference between bands is the difference between saying you are unhappy and giving an official something they can act on.

The question

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Sir or Madam,

Your local council has announced plans to build on an area of public land near your home. You are opposed to the plan. Write a letter to the council's planning department.

  • Explain how the land is currently used by local people
  • Describe your concerns about the proposed development
  • Say what you would like the council to do

A 150-word letter in a formal, semi-formal or personal register. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.

What separates the three answers

Only the band 9 letter accepts that the council has a real problem to solve and proposes an alternative, which turns an objection into something a planning officer can actually use.

The three answers

Band 6.5

177 words (the task asks for at least 150)

The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.

The answer

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter to express my strong opposition against the plan3 to build the new retail units on Marden Field, which was announced by your department in last month.

Marden Field is used by a lot of local people every day. Children are playing football there after school, families are going for walks with their dogs1, and in summer there is a small market every Saturday. It is the only open green space in this area, and many people including me are using it regularly.

My main concern is about the traffic. Marden Lane is a very narrow road and already there are many cars parking on both sides. If you build the retail units, the traffic will increase a lot and it will be dangerous for the children who are walking to school. Also I am worried about the noise.2

I would like you to cancel this plan and keep Marden Field as it is.4 I hope you will listen to the opinion of the residents.

Yours faithfully, R. Vasilenko

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “Children are playing football there after school, families are going for walks with their dogs”

    Three habitual actions in the present continuous. The reader understands perfectly, which is why this sits mid-band rather than lower, but the pattern repeats across the whole paragraph.

  2. 2. Task achievement

    “Also I am worried about the noise.”

    A second concern raised and abandoned in seven words. The bullet asks the writer to describe their concerns; this one is only named.

  3. 3. Lexical resource

    “express my strong opposition against the plan”

    'Opposition to' is the collocation. The formal register is being reached for successfully, but the phrase does not quite land.

  4. 4. Task achievement

    “I would like you to cancel this plan and keep Marden Field as it is.”

    An all-or-nothing demand with no alternative offered. It gives the council nothing to negotiate with and is therefore the easiest kind of objection to dismiss.

One honest caveat

Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.

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