Ray Holton (Oxford Mail, August 18) believes building 15,000 so-called eco-homes at Weston-on-the-Green just three miles down the A34 from Bicester will generate plenty of affordable housing.

This is questionable.

Building 15,000 more homes per se will not even touch the market value of Oxfordshire's total stock of around a quarter of a million homes.

You would have to build an unimaginably huge number of new homes to impact on the price of the existing housing stock.

Perhaps he believes the developers will provide lots of affordable housing within the total out of their own profits? Well, that is doubtful.

The developers have offered such a huge quantity of infrastructure - road, rail, trams, schools and so on - that it is clear they will not be able to provide anything like the level of affordable housing normally demanded of developers.

Indeed, they seem to be reducing their estimate of the percentage of affordable homes they will supply as they realise the real cost of eco-friendly infrastructure.

There is another very important reason why this eco-town would be a total disaster if built at Weston.

It would totally eclipse Bicester's hopes of generating more jobs locally and of growing its own economy.

There is a serious imbalance in Bicester between homes and jobs, with more than 60 per cent of Bicester residents commuting out of the town every morning and returning in the evening.

We need to help Bicester to become economically successful and socially sustainable - a real and flourishing community.

Building a shiny new eco-town just down the road will put the death knell on those hopes.

Keith Mitchell Leader Oxfordshire County Council