Sir – I am staggered by the suggestion made by Ms Dance, representing the Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT), that the University’s now infamous Castle Mill Flats adjoining Port Meadow should be allowed to stay for the majority of their design lifetime (Report, June 11).
Can there have been a more egregious assault on Oxford’s skyline and heritage in recent times? Can there have been a more obvious and logical rallying cause for an organisation such as the OPT to put its money where its mouth is? I understand, however, that instead of being in the vanguard of the campaign to seek adequate measures to undo the damage, the OPT has been conspicuously muted on this issue to date.
The Castle Mill Flats were imposed on Oxford thanks to systemic failures of due planning process.
The process of exploring if and how the development can be made retrospectively lawful is ongoing.
In that context, for the OPT to enter the debate at this stage with a contribution so utterly meaningless suggests either a complete failure to understand the ongoing process, or that the relationship between the University and the OPT is unhealthily cosy.
Dominic Woodfield
Oxford
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