Sir, I attended the South Oxfordshire District Council planning meeting that approved the Orchard Centre extension. I can only describe it as a charade.

Planning meetings exist so that councillors can be seen to make up their minds. If feels very much as if minds were made up in advance.

Hammersons was seen to be marking out Station Road days before the meeting, which suggests the firm assumed it was a “done deal”. Two days before the meeting, SODC issued a press release stating that residents were in favour of the development (it is clear from their account of the survey that the methodology was flawed). This is propaganda on the rates.

At the meeting, two county councillors asked to speak but instead of being given a separate slot (at the discretion of the chairman), were made to speak as part of the TOTAL five minutes allocated to the public.

Three members of the public wanted to speak, which gave us just one minute each. And Cllr Greene was cut off before he could finish.

When the chairman asked for a representative from the town council, it seemed at first that no-one would come forward.

Cllr Robertson then spoke but gave the impression he had not prepared anything, giving his own personal opinion rather than that of the town council and stating that he fully supported the application.

In fact, as Cllr Margaret Davies later pointed out, the town council planning committee refused this application on two occasions. But because of this, their reasons for doing so were not heard.

Everyone knows these are controversial plans, particularly with respect to the re-routing of buses through Station Road and the pedestrian area around the Cornerstone. Hundreds of Didcot people have signed petitions against it. It feels as if no-one is listening.

Penny Dakin Kiley
Lydalls Road
Didcot