Sir – Mr Harry St John (Letters, August 20) considerably exceeds your 300-words limit in his long rant against the Oxford Green Belt.

In return for this editorial generosity he should at least have shared with your readers the fact that he is the Associate Director (Rural, Energy and Projects Division) of the Oxford branch of Savills, the estate agents.

Obviously his firm will profit from an increase in the amount of building land around Oxford, and no doubt that would in turn be good for Mr St John’s career and salary. Could it be that these prospects distort his opinions? So long as he chooses to conceal this pecuniary interest we shall treat his arguments with disdain.

Chris Hall
Oxfordshire Correspondent, the Open Spaces Society
Turville, Henley-on-Thames