Sir – One of the remaining tranquil oases in central Oxford will soon be no more.

I refer to Holywell Cemetery. To visit the cemetery is to escape to another world where the great and the good of the city were laid to rest. Kenneth Grahame, John Stainer, Maurice Bowra and Kenneth Tynan are only a few of those whose mortal remains are interred.

The fact that the cemetery is managed with wildlife in mind only adds to the attraction. It is an area which cannot be planned but emerges through the long passage of time.

The whole tranquillity is dependent upon the vacant land to the east. The absence of development on this land has allowed nature to flourish. Here are otters, snakes and a whole array of wildlife. It is possible to view a fully-grown dog fox stroll across the area at midday.

The area is not without historical interest as here lie remains of Civil War defences and a view to Holywell Ford and the site of Dylan Thomas’s love nest where he lived with his mistress.

All this will be destroyed by Merton College’s developers plan to site 349 student flats on the vacant land. The imposition of four-storey blocks of flats hard against the cemetery will destroy the unique character of this precious area; the developers admit this in their application.

The flats are not for Merton’s own students but to anyone who will be able to afford the rent. Merton is a wealthy college and should ask itself if the interests of the quality of the local environment are best served by destroying such a remarkable area which is irreplaceable.

A halfway house could be achieved if one of the three blocks proposed (block A) was dropped from the plan, but I suspect that greed is a more persuasive argument to the college than the preservation of a unique remnant of the city’s heritage. Objections have to be lodged by the end of July.

Paul Hornby
Oxford