Sir – The Pye/Blenheim plan to build 1,500 new homes in Woodstock, and double the size of this historic town, is a disaster. It cannot possibly be ‘sustainable’.

Traffic on the A44 between Woodstock and Oxford is already jammed during rush hours.

There is little work in Woodstock itself so about 2,000 extra cars would be heading out of the town and back in the evening. Pye/Blenheim talk of a supermarket in the development but residents would also need a doctor, dentist, post office, bank, restaurants and pubs.

Woodstock has all of these, but already it is almost impossible to find a parking place and the new development would be too far from the town centre for residents to contemplate walking. How would the current secondary school cope with so many extra pupils? The doctors’ surgery struggles at present to keep up with the residents of Woodstock and surrounding villages. And what of the huge extra burden on water supplies and sewerage?

It is clear that extra homes are needed throughout the country, but surely additional development should be tailored proportionately to the size of each community.

To double a community in size within just a few years is to unbalance it totally. At present Woodstock is ‘sustainable’. Residents are fortunate enough to have the shops and services they need on their doorsteps. A new supermarket would take business out of the town and the centre would probably die. The idea of 180 homes on this site was rejected just a few years ago by a planning inspector as ‘excessive development’. What has changed to suddenly make 1,500 homes viable?

Christine Lea, Woodstock