Sir - I represented a number of villages which lie to the south of Oxford city at the Examination-in-Public into the South East Plan. We are all opposed to the threat to Oxford's Green Belt presented by the city council and the cohort of developers represented at the examination. What was abundantly clear was the extent of the threat to the south-east flank of Oxford, much of it lying in South Oxfordshire. Grenoble Road is no more a boundary to their ambitions than a line drawn in water. Developers have already been buying up land in the centre of small villages to the south of Grenoble Road in the expectation of building on it.

Some developers came to the examination to argue that a review of the Green Belt was acceptable provided that any new boundaries were guaranteed for the next 30 years. What utter nonsense!

The Grenoble Road Green Belt inner boundary was only settled in 1997 it has subsequently been reconfirmed by the South Oxford local plan, the Oxford local plan and also by the Oxfordshire structure plan and look at how many developers together with Oxford City Council have already been trying to take a hard swipe at it.

However, our real anger was focused on Oxford City Council and the apparent change of heart we witnessed as to whether a land-grab from South Oxfordshire was in fact necessary. Having set the hare running by focusing development eyes on our part of the Green Belt, they now appear to be saying that they can after all meet most of their housing targets within the existing city boundaries. It leaves us still with a legacy of speculative developers which threaten the very existence and essence of our villages.

And why this change of heart? Could this possibly be linked to the city's bid for unitary status and the need to show, for now, that it can manage within its existing boundaries? If so, it is no more convincing than the rest of the bid. It is simply a good indication of the cavalier attitude we can expect a unitary city to adopt with its neighbours.

Are we now seeing even affordable housing being sacrificed to the city's absurd and short-term political ambitions?

Elizabeth Gillespie, Baldons Parish Council, Marsh Baldon