Sir – I attended the public hearing of a planning case in the Town Hall. The tight adherence to the right process has not produced the right outcome. I am worried that expedient decisions affecting communities around our city, like the one described below, are being rushed through merely on the basis of a match between urgent need, available site and a plan that fits regulations. There is scant consideration of context. A small plot in a one-way street in Summertown is to be the site of four new terraced family houses. There will be one parking lot to serve all four houses and a communal garden. Substantial trees run along the south border behind which lie a block of flats.

Anybody inspecting the site and the plans or photographs [and we understand only one councillor present had done so] would be incredulous. The houses are crammed in; the rooms are so small; the ‘gardens’ are so small; the roof terraces are so small — but all ‘within regulations.’ The local authority is storing up trouble: expecting people who purchase these houses not to abuse parking rules; or ask for them to be changed; the local residents are deeply concerned by the challenge to the stability and harmony of the community because people will not stay for long.

The turnover of occupiers is bound to be higher because the houses will be dark from the trees; overlooked by the flats; confined and claustrophobic within, as there will be so little space for free-standing furniture it will all have to be fitted; and what parent will allow their child to play on a strip of a roof terrace; or in a communal garden whether or not supervised by any adult? I am opposed to cramming small properties into small spaces whether in Summertown or Cutteslowe, Headington or Barton, Cowley or Iffley. Am I the only one?

Felicity Gunn, Summertown, Oxford