I WRITE in reference to the West Oxfordshire District Council leader’s statement that West Oxfordshire wishes to roll out the Local Plan numbers as they currently exist in the proposed plan.

The press release states that the Government report suggests a housing target of 3,415 homes per year as opposed to 5,000 as required by the Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA).

That doesn’t sound a lot of difference but, of course, rolling it out over the 15 years of the plan it means that the actual changes are 51,225 instead of 75,000.

In my mind a massive difference.

It means swathes of precious countryside being concreted over to meet 23,775 homes that the Government does not deem necessary.

Moreover I would like to remind the leader – Cllr James Mills – that at the first hearing of the Local Plan examination in public in 2015, West Oxfordshire put forward a strong argument that they should not be delivering the figures claimed in the SHMA, having already over-delivered in the previous period.

The current figures in the proposed Local Plan include what we always believed and which is now confirmed by the Government as over-inflated SHMA figures for West Oxfordshire plus overinflated figures for Oxford City.

If the Government figures are closer to the reality – as most thinking people believe – then West Oxfordshire not only can cut back on its own quota but does not have to deliver so many for Oxford city.

Why is it that we can see that and yet our elected representatives are sticking their heads in the sand?

I remind the council that less than two years ago West Oxfordshire’s own policy was not to build to the SHMA.

TRISH REDPATH Shipton Road, Woodstock