I READ with interest your article and letters column recording the likelihood of massive development in Oxfordshire up to 2031 and a certain euphoria surrounding the news.

We should all be careful what we wish for. A total of 106,000 houses roughly equates to an extra 424,000 people at four per home, two per household will need school places, four will need medical services at some stage, all will need to be fed, and watered.

The proposed increase in numbers is approximately 66 per cent more than the size of the present population of the county, currently at around 636,000 people.

This is probably unsustainable, as the limits to growth have almost been reached in this part of England. Further growth cannot readily be achieved without a dramatic impoverishment of the county environment due to the malady of rushed over-development represented by the numbers evident.

I doubt very much in this nominally democratic country if the population of the county and others similarly affected will be invited to vote as to whether these changes are wanted.

Your report would appear to indicate that they are being imposed from central government without a full understanding of how it is to be achieved, serviced and sustained long-term, in the face of cuts to local authority funding in southern England.

Malcolm Nichols
Northfield Road
Headington