AT May’s west area planning committee, seven speakers were allowed to share 10 minutes’ address time representing a variety of interests, urging the committee not to approve the huge Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) building in Walton Street.

Their grounds? The local impact of its height and bulk, loss of light through ancient stained glass windows of St Paul’s (Freuds), that Victorian skeletons from the old church burial ground will be removed (to where?), that the vast height of the building means it is being said by council officers to be ‘an exception’ to the rules protecting Oxford’s views and skyline and that it is out-of-keeping with the conservation area.

Oxford University’s architects then spoke for 10 minutes about how we need a School of Government that is transparent (hence all the glass), how beautiful it will be and that it will do no harm to Oxford’s views from anywhere.

City planning officers supported them without reservation. Without debate, the majority of councillors voted to approve the proposed building as an exception to their own planning rules about height of buildings in the city.

I was not at the meeting 14 months ago where the disastrously tall Roger Dudman Way buildings were approved, but wonder if I had been and had spoken out against them, whether I would have been treated with the same amused contempt that seemed unaccountably reserved for some of the speakers against the BSG.

From the start of the meeting it seemed clear there was no way Oxford University would not get approval for this exceptionally tall building, no matter what anyone said or had written to our democratically elected representatives.

Huge numbers of us took part in the consultation and were totally ignored. Where is democracy in Oxford when it comes to millionaire landowners?

SUSHILA DHALL, Stable Close, Rewley Park, Oxford.