I READ with great consternation your short and inaccurate article (Oxford Mail, July 1), which is simply a regurgitation of a press release by Doric saying ‘Panel backs West Way’, claiming that the plans ‘have been given a positive assessment by an influential group of architects’.

Proper analysis of the actual report reveals that: ‘The overall architectural quality is not yet good enough for this prominent location and needs to be reassessed, both at close hand and from a distance’.

I note also that the Design South East Report does not think the church building and burial ground has been properly incorporated in the design. Furthermore the report fails to make any comment about the western end of the development.

Surely for such a report to be credible for planning assessment it should deal with the development as a whole and not in part?

In addition to this, the Highways Agency, in complete vindication of the majority of the upwards of 800 objections to the development, describes the submission of the applicant in relation to traffic as ‘inadequate to make an assessment’ and has called for a rigorous analysis of the reality of traffic impact to be produced before determination of this application.

Local experience of daily gridlock on the A34 and Botley Road confirms the inadequacy of the applicants report.

GRAHAM SYKES, West Way, Botley, Oxford


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