SINCE the passing of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the media has been a frenzy of diverse opinions of her morals, values, policies and of her actions taken.

The most interesting anecdote I heard was told by the BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who recalled that many years before, he had asked Mrs Thatcher about the possibility of selling off, or offering, huge discounts on council houses.

Her reply was: “No Andrew! We cannot do that, it will do nothing for our people (middle-class suburbia).”

When Nick Clegg said, in November 2012, that a new generation of garden cities and suburbs needed to be brought forward to tackle the housing crisis and, in turn, release a £225m pot, the race was on.

Leading the way were Cherwell District Council and former Thatcher fledgling, Sir Tony Baldry. With this lucrative carrot dangling before them, nothing was to get in their way.

Bicester is a garden city? We just did not know it. Many may well have thought it was a market town, even a garrison town, or perhaps a much-hyped shopping outlet village, but to reach the winning line, a garden city it is!

The people of Bicester are going to be promised many things to toe the line.

Garden cities are all well and good, but what about zero-carbon eco-Bicester, while the townspeople who work and live in the town centre are about to be engulfed in ongoing cloud of invisible pollutants from the expected increase of vehicular traffic, coinciding with the opening of the new town centre.

Why would anyone plan or propose a new town park (Pingle) along such a heavy volume of cars using the Bicester Village road?

Are we really no further down the road than Mrs Thatcher’s sentiments: “It will do nothing for our people!”

ROGER WISE, The Glebe, Culham