DESPITE living close and having an interest in environmental affairs, I have little knowledge of the beauty, access or amenity value of the paddocks north of Headington’s Ruskin College.

Neither have I an intimate acquaintance of all Oxford’s green spaces, except that I know that they surely vary in these qualities.

What I do know is that housing is desperately needed in the city and that the answer to whether a space in, or adjacent, to Oxford should be developed is sometimes but not always ‘no’.

Frankly I am at a loss as to why the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England should decide that they have a special interest in the city.

Just as a collection of buildings, or even a village, does not make the countryside urban, the society should be reminded that Oxford is a city, albeit a small one, and that open spaces in its borders do not make it rural.

The campaign would possibly argue that stating where housing and infrastructure should be developed is not its function, but it would help its case if it would do so.

ROGER JENKING, Headington, OXFORD