Sir - I would like to take issue with David Widdowson (Letters, May 9).

Compared with the rest of the country, Oxford has no need for a purpose-built concert hall. The Sheldonian, Playhouse and Apollo exist for the larger events and all the colleges, bar one, have chapels which can host events and dozens of smaller venues exist across the city.

Putting aside the need the boatyard site is too small, being only 0.8 acre. How could a concert hall be accommodated on the site along with the flats and public areas? No parking exists or could be provided for concert goers. No underground parking could be built as the water table is only 18in below the existing surface and any attempt is likely to lead to the collapse of St Barnabas's Church. I do not even mention the cost, but Spring Residential would require £4m just to cover the price they paid for the site.

It is true that the people of Jericho have rejected the scheme by Spring but it is not they who make the decisions on planning applications but the city council, or, as is now the case, the Secretary of State after the forthcoming appeal hearing.

The people of Jericho have never rejected development of the boatyard, but rather the nature of the Spring proposal which totally fails to recognise the nature of Jericho and would result in the erection of apartment blocks which one would have expected to find in East Germany in the 1950s.

So Mr Widdowson, no concert hall in Jericho, just well-designed two- and three-storey houses, reflecting the brick terraced streets of this most distinctive area of the city.

Paul Hornby, Jericho