Sir – Reg Little’s article helpfully alerted readers to the Dragon School’s proposal to build a large and unsightly music building that would loom over Dragon Lane (Report, July 2), one of the only off-road bicycle and pedestrian routes between central and North Oxford.

Whilst improving the school’s music facilities is an admirable goal, the scale, design and placement of the proposed building is completely out of character for the North Oxford Conservation Area.

Not only will the hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians who use Dragon Lane on a daily basis be negatively affected, but views of the building from across the fields by those walking or punting along the River Cherwell would also be blighted, as suggested by the school’s own projected images and by the 11 mature trees that would be felled. The negative impact on both Dragon Lane and views from the river would be even more severe should the school’s ‘Phase 2’ be implemented, as outlined in the planning application.

The school has also not properly assessed the impact a new 126-seat recital hall and an outdoor amphitheatre accommodating several hundred people would have on local noise levels and traffic/parking.

Finally, the project would result in the loss of six staff flats in the fine Edwardian building that would be torn down to make room for the new music facility, further increasing pressure on affordable housing in North Oxford.

The Dragon School needs to submit a much more sensitively-designed proposal that genuinely takes local needs into account, and the council needs to be vigilant in order to avoid another potential Castle Mill fiasco, especially in regards to the views across the fields from the river and along Dragon Lane.

G.A. Johnson
Oxford