I was on the planning committee for the Westgate. Those of us who voted against the development were not opposing the idea of a John Lewis store per se nor an upgrading of the Westgate Centre.

We were just appalled at the size and mass of the buildings proposed, the number of shops and the pollution such a massive development would cause in the city.

Features such as the pedestrianisation of Queen Street and a foyer workplace for homeless young people are no longer offered but instead, a whole series of shopping malls.

The planners estimated in their report that the development would involve 90 extra delivery lorries a day, half of them articulated.

Ten more park-and-ride buses would be put in to serve the extra shoppers coming in to the city and hundreds more cars will be using the Abingdon road, with its narrow, partly Norman bridge, at rush hour.

Not surpisingly, the levels of nitrogen dioxide would, according to the planners data, be higher than government guidance targets in Norfolk Street.

The potential for housing near the city, planned around the Trill Mill Stream is an opportunity being wasted.

The city is being offered money from the Government for more housing in the city.

With the growing awareness of climate change, surely we should be putting houses nearer to the city centre and not out in the Green Belt?.

We really do have enough shops and more than enough employment at this level.

We need affordable and social housing. Let other towns become "major retail centres" and let any new buildings we build enhance this beautiful city rather than overwhelming and polluting it.

Anyone concerned about this development should write, before November 20, to Yvonne Cooper MP, Minister for Planning, c/o Mark Newman GU1 4GA.

NUALA YOUNG Tree Lane Oxford