I WAS saddened to read that the lovely old building at Shotover is to be demolished.

This beautiful building is part of the history of Shotover.

As I understand, it was gifted to the people of Oxford in a trust and therefore any decision to demolish this building needs to be debated openly.

Since a fire damaged the building in 2011 why were the insurers not called in then to assess and repair the building? Surely this is negligence?

Was the building even insured? And why was the building left in this allegedly structurally dangerous state for all this time?

The building has a lovely old barn annex and the bricks are early Victorian and worthy of a preservation order. Since the building was gifted in a trust the council should have immediately repaired the building following the fire.

Meanwhile Shotover has no proper warden. People keep cutting down trees and are ruining the nature reserve. Just the other day I saw two men from Oxford City Council cutting down seven stunning grey green Scots Pine trees.

They said it was to get more light for an oak tree which looked rotten anyway.

SUSAN THOMAS
Magdalen Road, Oxford