Vale of White Horse District Council leader, Councillor Matthew Barber, has challenged some of our statements on the district’s development plans (April 17).

Firstly, he says they have identified only seven sites in the Green Belt for development. However, their proposals also include the ‘release’ of a further 17 sites out of the Green Belt including the village of Farmoor and a strip of land along the southern boundary near Tubney and Shippon.

These sites are not specifically identified for development now but ‘may be considered for development as part of preparing the Vale Local Plan Part 2’, likely to be next year. Only a careful reading of the latest update to their Local Plan makes this clear.

It seems obvious to us that the intention is to seek quiet removal of these sites from the Green Belt now, while the furore is focused elsewhere, with a view to bringing forward development in these areas in the very near future.

Secondly, he says we cannot have formed a judgement on the Strategic Housing Market Assessment because it was only published last week. However, the Key Findings document was published in March. It proposes 100,000 houses for Oxfordshire – a 40 per cent increase in 17 years. It relies heavily on the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan which suggests it will create 85,000 jobs in the county within this time.

We agree that inaccuracies will cloud the agenda.

Perhaps then Councillor Barber will join us in calling for a full public consultation on the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan before we commit the county to such enormous, rapid and unsustainable growth?

Helen Marshall, CPRE Oxfordshire, London Road, Wheatley