Sir – In the editions of January 9 and 16, you have page after page of photos and news reports of the latest floods.

Also (January 16), is a three-inch report headlined (Application for 250 homes on edge of town).

This goes on to note that the West Oxfordshire District Council Local Plan 2011 has provision for 5,500 new homes in the district, including 1,850 in Carterton, of which the reported application is presumably a part and 1,900 in Witney. I would ask the council to put these two news items together and realise that unless provision is made in new-build planning and construction for the capture and safe release of rainwater, every new house built on a greenfield site is going to contribute to the next and all subsequent floods in lower-lying villages and towns.

H. Dunkelman, Grafton, Bampton