Sir – I am dismayed by your comments on the proposals for Botley in the leader column last week. Indeed the arguments put forward are so weak that I wonder if the article was intended to provoke.

Partnership with a builder with a good track record is not the point — it is Doric’s plans which matter. Is it ‘sentimental’ to wish to keep what is good in Botley, and to develop in a positive way for the future?

One of the invidious aspects of the handling of the whole affair by the Vale is the presentation of Doric’s plans as the only option for change. I oppose the plans because I do not want to see a pleasant, thriving local centre turned into a ‘town centre’ with, as Doric tell us, a vibrant night-time economy.

I do not want retirement housing with gardens replaced by first-floor units with no outside space. I do not want a vast new supermarket and underground parking. Botley may appear to a visitor to be nothing more than a run-down set of shops — to those who live here it is a thriving, friendly community. Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Jane Green, Oxford