Just under a year ago, West Oxfordshire District Council planning staff visited our village and announced that they were going to build another housing estate on land adjacent to Carterton.

It seemed a foregone conclusion that what could be 1,000 homes were to be located on the remaining green fields between the town and Brize Norton.

This building frenzy would follow that of the disastrous Shilton Park development, with its serious drainage, traffic and social problems that have still not been resolved.

A call was put out for residents to respond via letter to the council. Council staff admitted they were overwhelmed by the deluge of letters from those residing in the affected area who rejected the idea of engulfing the ancient village with the ever-expanding town.

Residents were able to easily poke holes in the plan to build on the proposed East site, listing existing traffic, schools, drainage and service problems among the obvious barriers to development, let alone the continued decimation of the village way of life. Now it’s time for this report to be brought before the council’s cabinet.

Somehow, over the year, the list of three sites proposed has shrunk to just two – the North site having been abandoned for reasons that are not clear in the report.

The documentation surrounding investigations is opaque, offering little clarity and much confusion. Fortunately, we are not the naive country bumpkins the planning officers might think we are. Many of us have studied the core strategy and all of the investigations and documentation surrounding the proposed land development.

We are organised and are prepared to become more than a mere annoyance should the council decide to continue along the path of the destruction of our community.

I would like to ask the cabinet publicly whether it intends to heap more problems on the residents of the communities surrounding Carterton, or will it abandon this profit-driven, short-sighted programme of mass development?

It has blamed the previous Labour Government, claiming it was forcing its hand, but now that we have both a Conservative district council and Government, this argument has dissolved.

It’s time to get back to the drawing board and come up with some modern, progressive housing ideas which show balance and sustainability.

Shane J Rae, Brize Norton