THE second round of presentations of the proposals to redevelop Botley shopping centre are even more worrying than the first.

No amendments have been made in response to copious feedback from local residents to the presentations last February. Large numbers of people then commented that the centre needed a facelift but should otherwise be left more or less as it is now: no scheme is better than the wrong scheme, they said. Well, they’re in for a sad surprise if these proposals go ahead.

The new presentations added some numbers. We already knew about student flats. Now we learn that the plan is for accommodation for 600 students, without parking, above a supermarket, over a mile from any college and dominating a family shopping centre. Oh but sorry, we must remember that this would no longer be a family shopping centre but a large superstore surrounded by a six-screen cinema, attendant restaurants and the student flats, the whole accessed largely by escalator from a semi underground car park for 550 cars (imagine), catering for hoped-for customers from miles away. This is all on too great a scale for the site. That is the crux of the matter. It is too heavy a price for Botley residents to be asked to pay for the refurbishment of their shopping centre. To it is added the anxieties of existing traders and the contemplation of years of disruption and living on top of a building site, with an end result that few people want – probably no-one wants it in its entirety. Truly these proposals, if approved, would ruin Botley.

JANET GODDEN Oxfordshire County Council, North Hinksey division