IN reply to the letter from Jane Cox (Oxford Mail, Thursday): as Northway councillor I will continue to work hard for the safety and wellbeing of residents.

As chairman of the East Planning Committee, I celebrate the decisions we took in September to ensure more than 1,000 new homes in the city, half at affordable rents. Labour Group believes that new housing provision is a paramount issue for current and future generations in Oxford.

Of course, decisions about development must always weigh the positives against possible risks and pitfalls. EPC has imposed lots of conditions that will mitigate and overcome loss of amenity from development at Barton. But the Green Party did not support the development and the independent spoke against any new housing.

Jane Cox in her letter (September 26) objects to possible effects on Northway. The potential dangers from building at Barton are well known. But the use of offensive imagery and blatant misinformation is totally out of order. At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour open Q&A meeting held in the Town Hall, on September 12, Jane Cox said she had not understood a thing. Be clear, she and G Gibbs purport to represent Northway as a whole but the accompanying photograph only shows those two. The rest of the group shown do not live on Northway and have other parochial agendas.

I will ensure that Northway benefits from the Barton development. Added noise and traffic danger from a few extra buses per hour through Northway will hardly be noticed. Very few trees will be lost. On the other hand new houses are a benefit to all. Let’s work together to get the detail right and iron out all possible problems.

ROY DARKE, Councillor for Northway, Edgeway Road, Oxford