Sir – The Public Examination into the Cherwell Local Plan has resumed after a six-month suspension. The delay was because the planning inspector had asked Cherwell to almost double the number of houses to be built, in response to controversial targets from the Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA).

Considerable objection to this was expressed from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), from the Oxford Green Belt Network and from me.

However, although we must wait for the inspector’s report, it seems that most of our local councils have now accepted these very high targets.

What is strange though is that no one is accepting responsibility for setting them:

 The inspector claims that he didn’t

  •  Councillor Gibbard, Cherwell’s planning lead, says the council does not set the targets, it just has to implement them
  •  Cherwell’s officers say that they have been given no choice but to use them and,
  • the SHMA document itself says that its assessment does not set targets.

So, who does? Are these instructions being handed down from ministers? I continue to believe that, while some growth is needed, the SHMA’s assessment is excessive. It will be a disaster for Oxfordshire’s environment and its already stretched infrastructure.

However, maybe people would be more willing to accept unpalatable decisions if there was more transparency and openness about the way in which they were taken.

Alan Lodwick, Kidlington