IT HAS always fascinated me that planners put residential developments beside polluting bypasses, both old and new.

I am frankly amazed that Oxford City Council should see fit to be proud of the new development at Barton Park.

With the prevailing south-westerly winds, yhe A40 Northern Bypass, as one of the more congested roads in the county, must spread both diesel and petrol pollutants across the site in significant quantities. We now know these are a leading cause of lung and bladder cancer.

With the latest revelations that diesel particulate emissions are far greater than was previously thought, presumably the city council may well be called to account if Barton Park residents find themselves with an unacceptable ambient air quality.

You do, however, have to be impressed by the speed with which the Barton Park developers have built their access roads.

Perhaps they could give some advice to Ian Hudspeth, whose business experience was running two hardware shops before he took on the leadership of Oxfordshire County Council, and his hapless councillors, as to how to expedite the Wolvercote/Banbury roundabout contract – where we haven’t seen a man or a machine working on the actual roundabouts since 2015.

SIMON HENSON
Hailey, Witney