Sir – Apropos the controversy which has been chronicled by your paper concerning the St Clements development, it seems to me that the local community in Summertown is sleepwalking towards a similar situation in Diamond Place.

The council plans will utterly change the rather pleasant high street environment, reduce the barely adequate parking available to the community, and restrict access to the existing shopping parade, the leisure centre, and the North Oxford Association facilities, all heavily used by Summertown residents and others.

The council’s proposals, the subject of an upcoming review by the ‘inspector’, Dr Shelagh Bussey, are based on the sale by the council of two contiguous car parks, which are an income-producing capital asset owned by the community.

A reduction in parking will be contained in a proposal which will bring changes whose life will be some 50 years or more. Yet the increasing use of cars and the need for more parking over this timescale is unarguable, however undesirable such a prospect might seem to some council members.

On top of all this, the proposals call for more student accommodation, but we already have literally thousands of students within walking distance of Summertown.

It calls for more affordable housing, but that ignores the large number of flat dwellings at the top end of the Marston Ferry Road.

And the ‘public response’ is clear that the development will encourage the kind of anti-social behaviour which can be a feature of large developments of the type which the planners propose. Finally, residents should note that the council has stated that they will approve a plan which may include whatever they decide — in other words, the views of local residents who actually use the existing facilities will be ignored.

Tony Williams, Oxford