The motion by Oxford city council Lib Dems which you reported in Saturday’s Oxford Mail (Lib Dems call for new city housing policy), was disappointing.

This Government has abolished the previous one’s Soviet-style centralised planning and handed new freedom and power to the city council to decide what housing and development Oxford needs.

Our council is encouraged to engage with local people, set its policies and then start to build.

Local decision-making and devolved powers are exactly what the Lib Dems have long claimed to stand for.

It puzzles me that rather than seizing this opportunity, they are demanding a return to a centrally-planned past.

Oxford remains a wonderful place to live but, like other cities, it has been been blighted by the planners, politicians and big business.

Ugly concrete sprawl will be with us for decades to come. Small shops, pubs and post offices are vital parts of local life but have been strangled. Our people can feel isolated and lonely in characterless dormitory suburbs.

Mr Murray is quite right that solving homelessness is a moral imperative but we need to be more ambitious still.

We should create new developments that are beautiful, well-designed and respect the character of the city and its people.

We should also encourage green and thriving local communities. I’m a local Conservative and I hope we can influence this debate, but this should not be a party-political issue.

I would like to be able to change the views of the ruling party on our council, which remains wedded to old-fashioned planning that sees people as units and housing only as a commodity.

I hope the Lib Dems will begin to provide real opposition on the council, forget their motion and embrace a new vision of a more human city.

Good urban design produces a happier and healthier society and that benefits every one of us.

Jonathan Gittos Godstow Road Wolvercote Oxford