The revised plans for the Doric development in Botley show a complete disregard for the welfare of pram-pushers, wheelchair users and the less mobile, assuming that we shall all be happy to wait for ages for lifts to arrive or put our shopping-carts on to the escalators.

Oxford Mail:

An artist's impression of the new Westway development

We recently spent a week in Lichfield and were very impressed at the excellent facilities at the local shopping centre. It is by no means architecturally distinguished, but we have never seen so many mobility scooters, wheelchairs and families with prams and buggies.

All the shops are accessible at ground level and none of the development is more than two storeys high. It is on a big slope, but there is no need for steps anywhere. This is what we need in Botley, not an enormous, out-of-scale behemoth (a hippopotamus of a building as well as a white elephant).

The planned walkways will be in alleys which I would not want to venture along and I can foresee older people not using such a place after dark, however good the lighting. Safe access to shops and other facilities is crucial for the well-being of a community, as is the retention of purpose-built housing for the elderly and the Rectory.

Today’s letters

The recent refusal of Vale of White Horse District Council to comply with a Freedom of Information request has made us all the more determined to fight these proposals head-on, in the interests of all in Botley, particularly those less able to fend for themselves.

Joy Crispin Wilson

Evelyn Close

Botley

Oxford

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