Sir - I was most dismayed to read of city council plans to include housing on the site of Southfield Golf Course for the 2016 Local Plan.
I must first confess an interest as a member of Oxford City Golf Club.
However, I also have an interest as a resident of Oxford who is concerned about the relentless drive to concrete over any green spaces, with the seeming aim to create a soulless desert of housing estates.
Southfield is a members club but these members come from all strata of society.
Additionally local schools send pupils to have expert golf coaching, providing them with a first taste of what may prove to be a lifelong enjoyable recreation.
We have to decide what sort of city we want our children to inherit - personally I am most upset to think that when my children are older they will be unable to enjoy green spaces in Oxford other than a dwindling few. That's assuming there are any left after the city council has had its way. The planning controls seem to be completely malleable depending on what the council or big local concerns want - whether it is the destruction of Warneford Meadow on the NHS's behalf, or Brookes' continuing ambition to take over Headington. If Southfield is allowed to be built on, what next? There really would be no reason not to think of some of the city parks. The land may have been given to the people of the city for recreational use, but it seems that this can all be taken back at the whim of a planner in the city council offices. This latest kite-flying exercise by the council needs to be squashed at this point - hopefully the council planners will get the message at last.
Dr Chris Hornby, Oxford
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