AS the district councillor for Dean Court Ward, I would like to register my opposition to the proposals being promoted by Doric for the redevelopment of the West Way facilities. There is so much wrong with these plans that it is difficult to know where to begin, and much has already been said in the Oxford Mail.

I would like to object to the probable effect on the local community. My ward contains many people who rely on the currently available facilities in West Way. Many are elderly, have young families or suffer from issues of mobility, making it very difficult to go elsewhere during the time the site will be a wasteland. I can have no faith that specialist services such as dentists and opticians and restaurants will be able to work out of Portakabins, while shops will hardly be benefited by having to trade from the middle of a building site.

I fear that many businesses will close or move away and that the likely high rents asked for the new units will mean that our diverse and interesting shopping parade will be full of the usual franchised outlets, rendering the area no different from any one of a hundred other such bland monuments to corporate ambition.

The idea of a student accommodation block on this site with no assured partner is half-baked. Such a large number of extra commuters would add to the traffic and public transport issues which are already a serious problem.

The proposals to flatten Field House are utterly contemptible. To treat elderly and confused citizens as just so much stock to be farmed out elsewhere shows much about the attitude of those behind these proposals. Does Doric seriously propose that the day centre can be run from a Portakabin?

I could go on.

No one could deny that the present shopping centre, including the Stephen Howse building, needs sympathetic modernisation, but not in the style of Doric. Botley has in many ways the feel of a large village where people of all ages, backgrounds and lifestyles meet and co-exist in harmony. There have been many community projects and developments in the area which have enhanced the pleasant atmosphere. Now Doric intends to put a wrecking ball through the heart of it.

JUDY ROBERTS Vale of White Horse district councillor, Dean Court Ward Stone Close, Botley