Sir – Currently there are consultations on the ‘outline proposals’ for the redevelopment of the Westgate Centre. Consultation is a strong term for a fully resolved scheme, lacking detailed facade treatment.

The outline planning covers the “the overall layout and interactions”, thus fixing the development and most of its parts. . There are parts of the scheme which are ‘backs’, possibly a greater percentage than Westgate today. You can have a well-designed back. Westgate opposite County Hall has a certain majesty in its arrangements, as a piece of town it is mute, most uninteresting, it feels unsafe to be near, and is one of the reasons many people hunger for a redeveloped Westgate. Yet new plans reveal service walls to Thames Street and Old Greyfriars Street.

Peter Coleman, BDP, explained “it was difficult to do anything other”. He had no suggestions for the service walls. He talked of using three metres of the old Westgate’s edge to make a retail frontage to animate that facade. It will be ‘small’, maybe looking like a shop but to all intents and purposes it’ll be unusable. Like a doll’s clothes are just like real clothes, except that they are unusable, except for a doll. He talked of it perhaps being for a bicycle shop. To illustrate: a bike is 1.7m-1.8m long; the real retail units, backing on to Thames Street, are about 50m-60m deep. The architect mistakes hope for reality. The ‘new’ street, wiggling to avoid separating John Lewis, focuses on ‘public squares’, which are only ‘destination spaces’. Effectively, the proposal is an open-air example of an inwardly-facing development. Like the existing Westgate but with the John Lewis Partnership?

There is minimal attention to the immediate city, minimal chance of this piece of Oxpens being improved.

I’m sure the architects will gild this object, to the best of their skill, just as Doug Murray did 45 years ago.

Graham Smith, Oxford