Sir – Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the inquiry into the Cherwell District Local Plan will be deciding the future of the former RAF Upper Heyford.

While there are no meaningful remains of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War airbase is physically intact.

In a country claiming that heritage sites are important to exploring historical events and processes, it is shameful that the airbase is being changed through both inappropriate buildings and uses.

If further such changes are permitted, the lessons to be drawn by this and future generations will be that the Cold War was unimportant to our past, present and future.

The level of indifference that has been shown towards the heritage value and potential of the airbase by owners, the district council and English Heritage is only matched by the importance of developing a greater understanding of the Cold War, and exploring the roots of the continuing distrust between Russia and the West.

The history of the airbase since the end of the Cold War and the US Air Force handing it back the Government in 1994, has been a catalogue of missed opportunities to create a heritage site of international importance.

In 1997, the Structure Plan justified limited new housing in this remote location to enable the removal of the military legacy from the landscape.

No houses had been built by 2005 when the next Structure Plan supported the same limited development, but this time to enable the conservation of its heritage potential.

The 2014 Local Plan is intended to find sites to meet objectively assessed housing needs, but should only be supporting residential development at this unsustainable location if, finally, adequate public access is secured to a properly conserved airfield (and buildings) for Cold War heritage purposes.

Daniel Scharf, Drayton