Hats off to the city councillors on the central, south and west area committee for upholding the community interest of Jericho by soundly rejecting the bid by Castlemore (through Spring Residential) to further desecrate the canal corridor (Oxford Mail, December 12).

The committee was very descriptive in refusing the planning application, using the terms "hideous", "no merit", and "Jericho deserves better".

It rightfully added five real issues to the reasons for refusal, topping up the four non-issues recommended by the planners.

We now hear that Castlemore (through Spring) is planning to appeal. I'm not surprised.

Of course, this is only a "high stakes" poker game for such developers, and there is far too much potential profit still laying in the centre of the table for them to just go away before seeing another card or two.

I'm not sure what form the appeal will take, or what the choices are.

One thing is certain. It will be conducted out of the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol.

So bring on the appeal. Jericho has survived numerous community killing blows, and we'll be damned if we don't see the back of this lot of arrogant interlopers as well.

In Jericho, we're not fighting for profit.

The prize for us is our survival as a living, breathing community.

To paraphrase one of my long ago countrymen, "we have not yet begun to fight".

The arrogance is quite astonishing, certainly evident if you could have seen the entourage of 'suits' silently and tuck-tailed filing out of the hearing room two weeks ago.

We, as citizenry, must by some means regain control of the planning process.

We all know how important the tourist is to Oxford, and the entire world spends vast sums here.

It's perhaps a shock to realise that practically none of the architecture they come to see has been built in the last 100 years.

In fact, what has been recently built continues to put them off.

EMMETT SCHLUETER Jericho Oxford