Sir – So here we are again, proposing to build houses for people that don’t come from here, or if that fails, drown four square miles of the Vale with a reservoir which will not serve us.

Oxford has options with the redevelopment of Westgate to provide much of its own needs but chose instead to build executive flats.

There are one million empty homes in the UK and, yes, there are plenty in the Vale – just look at the Harwell site and others, but don’t let the villages and towns around Oxford become “its base and brickish skirt”.

The Green Belt is there for a reason, to prevent endless urbanisation and to try to keep Britain a “Green and pleasant land” it is not a piece of Axminster carpet that can be torn up and relaid. Once it’s gone it’s gone and the very reason for this area being a lovely place to live goes with it.

The second point is that we must stop thinking that the only place to live is the ‘Home Counties’ if we and the UK to remain as an entity then we must move quality jobs and refurbish streets and streets of empty houses in the north East, West, North Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland so that opportunities are shared and the various teams feel part of the club. But then what do I know? I don’t have a duck house!

MN Fysh
Whitecross
Abingdon