Sir, A group of residents in North Abingdon representing Long Furlong and Peachcroft has got together since a public meeting addressed by Sandy Lovatt on November 3 educated us to the full horror of the implications of the Vale Local Plan 2031.

Since then we have read the mountain of documents published on the Vale website relating to the plan and produced digests in a number of key areas: l Irreversible loss of Green Belt, wildlife and countryside amenities l Overstated and misplaced housing numbers, especially when the increase in jobs that they are mainly supporting are located to the south of Abingdon in the Science Vale (Culham, Milton Park and Harwell) on the opposite of a town with a dysfunctional traffic network.

l Increased traffic congestion due to the local increase in the number of cars (exceeding 1,500), especially as no bus routes are planned and walking/cycling to the new jobs is too far. The vulnerability of the A34 is demonstrated weekly resulting in traffic jams in Abingdon due to the paucity of alternative routes.

l The Vale strategy to reduce air pollution in Abingdon due to high levels of traffic by routing traffic round the orbital road would no longer be open if the development were to go ahead, and would be ineffective for traffic bound for Culham Science Centre.

We have made these available on http://longfurlongcommunity.co.uk/vale-of-white-horse-local-plan to assist interested residents complete comment forms to VOWH by the deadline of December 19. How the Vale thinks that throwing a mountain of documents at the average member of the public and expecting them to have the time or ability to digest this, let alone formulate responses within the restrictive guidelines, does not seem to be democracy but bureaucracy!

Andrew Turner Loyd Close Abingdon