YOUR editorial on Oxford’s Green Belt (July 25) is exactly right.

On the same day, Liberal Democrats set out our vision in a motion to Oxford City Council.

We fully recognise the dire housing crisis facing our city.

We want people to have a real choice of good, affordable places to live. But we need to make sure we preserve a city worth living in. The LUC report of November 2015 analyses the Green Belt around Oxford in helpful detail.

It states that Green Belt land can be used in ‘exceptional circumstances’, but, crucially, gives responsibility for identifying those circumstances to local authorities.

So far, at both Northern Gateway and in its proposed northern ‘urban extension’, the Labour City Council has chosen land designated ‘high’ and ‘medium’ in terms of Green Belt function in the report.

The report says ‘the NPPF attaches great importance to Green Belts and stresses that their essential characteristics are openness and permanence’.

Permanent doesn’t mean unchanging.

Boundaries might move. But it does mean safeguarding what the Green Belt is for.

We think the northern urban extension leaves an insufficient and not very accessible ‘buffer’ between Oxford and Kidlington.

Building for our children and grandchildren involves challenges and hard choices.

It also presents opportunities. We want to get it right.

The City Council isn’t there yet.

CLLR ANGIE GOFF

Liberal Democrat City Councillor for Wolvercote