THE map on page 2 of the Oxford Mail (‘Plans are the right answer to country’s housing crisis’, June 15) shows how Oxford’s north-eastern Green Belt could – should 4,000 homes be built around Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke in the west – fall victim to the domino effect at the other end of the Northern Bypass.
Cherwell District Council, with the full backing of Oxford City Council, on the grounds of ‘exceptional circumstances’, will almost certainly get what they want in the Kidlington Gap and on towards Woodstock.
South Oxfordshire District Council for now has not included Wick Farm and Lower Elsfield in its preferred options, but SODC leader John Cotton is keeping an ‘open mind’.
Bob Price declares that Oxford has ‘the worst housing crisis in the country’, so Green Belt urban fences are now movable and Oxford’s Green Belt will be degraded towards non-existence.
How on earth have successive central and local governments in Oxford and Oxfordshire allowed this to happen?
Yes, the Thatcher right-to-buy was a savage assault on affordable housing, aided and abetted by the full-frontal assault on local government since 1979.
And now!
BRUCE ROSS-SMITH Bowness Avenue Headington
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