It won't just be “more empty units” the new Westgate Centre (April 8) will bring in its wake, what with “100 new shops, a five-screen cinema and 25 cafes and restaurants”.

It will also bring heightened levels of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and related particulates.

UK cities are predicted to see rising levels of air pollution to beyond 2030; and Oxford will be no exception. Quite the contrary.

Of course Oxford City Council, as it must by statute, monitors air pollution, street by street, and can claim some reductions here and there, but nowhere near enough.

Furthermore, air “poisoning’” inside vehicles runs at even higher rates than outside vehicles, so whatever might be the future of park & ride, vehicular traffic is inherently and actually unhealthy for all people.

Further, a report from the World Health Organisation in 2012 stated that no child should be raised/housed within a kilometre of a major road system.

Bang, then, to children in the new Barton development. Yes, a counsel of despair.

And of course, Oxford City Council hopes that by 2035 Oxford and environs will be healthy and prosperous, but against what odds?

So Westgate Mark 2 will give to Oxford a “world class shopping experience”, that is, on par with its existing duplicates in Reading, Milton Keynes, and Swindon; and low-paid employment will flow beside the Thames Isis.

A price worth paying?

BRUCE ROSS-SMITH
Bowness Avenue
Headington