On September 10, Oxford City Council was one of the sponsors of a conference The Way We Live: How can our neighbourhoods be fit for 21st-century living. A paper What can we learn from Europe? was presented by Wulf Daseking, former director of development, City of Freiburg im Breisgau, who, earlier in the day had been given a tour of the city of Oxford by its chief planning officer, Michael Crofton-Briggs.

He and other delegates learnt that developments in Freiburg, above, were built to Passivhaus standard (the 12 per cent extra cost recovered in seven years), with infrastructure put in place (primarily to reduce car ownership and use – eg car clubs) before the new houses were occupied, and with substantial elements of co-operative housing.

Any pretensions Oxford might have to being a world-class city would seem to depend on whether the city planners will require new residential developments (eg the Oxford University application to redevelop the Wolvercote Paper Mill site) to meet both these international standards and sound planning practice.

Daniel Scharf

Abingdon Road

Drayton nr Abingdon