Sir – Margaret Coombs is wrong to write that ‘NHS managers do not understand the vital need for green spaces’ (Letters, June 18). We do.

She is spot-on, however, when she writes that ‘wards can be noisy and overcrowded places’ which can ‘feel stifling’. It is precisely because we are responsible for upgrading these wards that we must pursue the Warneford Meadow sale. Its proceeds would provide the level of privacy, dignity and comfort that our patients so desperately need.

All your readers will immediately appreciate the pleasure the meadow brings to local residents. Few, however, may fully register the true level of distress and urgent needs of psychiatric inpatients. The mentally ill remain (despite 50 years of increasing community care) society’s most neglected members –with little voice and unable to present their case.

When the Hospital bought the Meadow in 1918 there were no effective psychiatric treatments. Patients were protected while nature took its course and average admissions were over a year. Thankfully this is no longer the case. With modern treatments and care most patients are treated at home and never come near the hospital. Those who are admitted are very ill indeed. They stay about six weeks receiving intensive care. As they recover they don’t want to walk on the meadow — they want to be home with their families and in familiar surroundings. And that is where they are now, supported by our staff.

The sale of the meadow would provide very ill patients with modern, high-quality and individualised accommodation — the sort most of us would want for our family members. It would also provide much needed, affordable accommodation for Oxford residents. The pursuit of judicial review is not a thoughtless, waste of money. It is a necessary and considered commitment to the welfare of this consistently ignored group.

Tom Burns, Consultant psychiatrist and non-executive director OBMH