The Strategic Housing Market Assessment threatens us with a massive increase in housing. South Oxfordshire District Council’s consultation paper (Local Plan 2031 – Issues and Scope) swallows this with hardly a murmur and consults us on where all the new houses should be build. Yet, amazingly to many of us, neither the SHMA nor SODC take into account underlying issues which will crucially affect how much we can absorb.

The likely impacts in terms of increased risks of flooding, water supply, increased traffic and air pollution, loss of bio-diversity and food producing capacity, damage to our countryside and contribution to climate change will be major. They should be assessed before, not after, any decision on how much new housing our district can absorb. To add insult to injury there has been absolutely no public consultation on whether what is proposed is acceptable to us, no provision in the SODC consultation document for people to say no.

For these reasons local community groups across South Oxfordshire have urged our council to think again, and to reject the SMHA housing forecast as unfit for purpose.

John Gordon Chairman, South Oxfordshire Sustainability, Reading Road, Wallingford

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Today’s letters