Sir – Now that the Government is relaxing its rules about planning, at least in the area of housing, wouldn’t it be good if they were to do so with infrastructure projects, so that fiascos like the Cogges Link Road, Witney, aren’t repeated? The pattern with such projects seems doomed from the start as the objections pour in: 

  • From traditionalists who can’t envisage the likely improvements from any scheme that changes their view of the landscape
  • From NIMBYs who can’t see beyond their own situations
  • From environmentalists who inevitably find the nesting site of the lesser-throstled horseshoe gnat (no, I made that up, but you get the point) lies in the path of the project
  • From OMDBs (Over My Dead Body) who seem to object on principle.

Then, of course, there are multiple levels of consultation and decision-making plus a bevy of opportunities to appeal against decisions. Everything seems to militate against the project in question and decision-taking disappears over the horizon.

Meanwhile, in the case of Cogges, for the past 20 years or more since the traffic plans were first mooted, drivers crawl, fume and curse daily through the centre of Witney to the inconvenience of all.

The need for decisive changes to planning regulations surely cannot be ignored for much longer.

Bob Forster, Shipton-under-Wychwood

PS At the gently geriatric age of 61, I wonder whether I’ll live to see the improvements proposed for the A40, let alone the HS2?