TIM Brighouse is absolutely right to point out that the proposed Cherwell Local Plan Partial Review illustrates just why we should have one Unitary Authority for Oxfordshire.

Cherwell (who look very much to Banbury and Bicester) have failed to make a coherent argument for housing in the Oxford Green Belt and, worse, have dumped it in some of its most precious places.

In particular, to suggest building on the North Oxford Golf Club courseseems like a bad joke. Surely this is the most critically located segment of the entire Green Belt. This 100-yearold course (with its unique landscape, ecology and opportunity for healthy exercise) is exactly what a Green Belt should protect.

Interestingly, the mention of a possible relocation site for the golf course appears to have been stuck in as an afterthought. However, I believe that The National Planning Policy Framework explicitly says that for health reasons, sports, recreation and open space land should not be built upon unless equivalent or greater provision for sports facilities is made. The Frieze Farm site would be big enough for only nine holes, and it is patent nonsense to contemplate moving an old established course a few yards across a major road.

I am not a golfer, but I think I understand the importance to people’s well-being provided by the exercise involved in a round of golf.

As well as saving a lot of money, a Countywide Unitary would be likely to secure a more reasoned and balanced assessment of the competing needs of jobs, housing, infrastructure – and recreation and open space around Oxford.

HILARY HASKELL
via email