Sir – No fewer than five letters in last week’s edition criticised John Cotton over the Morrisons application.

Morrisons’ intentions when it went for planning permission were presumably to go ahead.

But it seems quite unrealistic to assume, whether or not higher building standards were to be imposed, they would have gone ahead after announcing losses of £792m, the closure of 23 stores and sacking their chief executive in March this year.

So instead of blaming John Cotton for taking positions that had the wholehearted support of many Wallingford residents – not least most of its local shopkeepers who understandably feared the likely damage to our town centre – could we move on please to discuss what is now happening, and should happen, to the old Waitrose site, whose future is now again with a London-based developer?

Let us also engage with John Cotton and our local councillors on how best to respond to the massive current pressures to build ever more housing and infrastructure which threaten to overwhelm our beautiful area – including, as David Rouane rightly mentions, Didcot’s never-ending growth.

These issues are too important to be decided as in the past behind closed doors and subsequently “legitimised” by inadequate and poorly publicised electronic consultations.

John Gordon
Reading Road
Wallingford