Sir - The question is whether the proposed Weston-Otmoor eco-town is in the right place and whether the benefits promised are deliverable.

The current Central Oxfordshire planning strategy is based on guiding growth that does not have to be in Oxford to the county towns, particularly Bicester and Didcot.

The advantage is that these towns have the capacity to grow as employment and shopping centres in their own right, reducing the need for outward commuting. Bicester has good rail links and is situated east of the M40. The new town, intended to be bigger than Bicester, in contrast will be sited on either side of the A34 and stretch as far as the congested M40 junction. The developers suggest that the two halves can be linked by a bridge lined with shops, optimistically compared with Bath's Pulteney Bridge. However, this will span not a river but a polluting stream of long-distance traffic. The developers promise a railway station on the town's southern edge, but residents in the northern half particularly may prefer to use the roads.

The carrot the developers are offering is investment in the rail link to Milton Keynes. But recent turmoil suggests that large-scale property development may become less profitable. Will the developers be able to finance the building of higher standard eco-homes, the costly infrastructure of a new town, and rail improvements as well?

The danger is that the eco-town will undermine investment in Bicester and be no more than a commuter suburb for Oxford.

It seems bound to generate more traffic on a heavily loaded section of the A34.

It is surprising that such an unsatisfactory and opportunist proposal should have got as far as the Government's shortlist.

Mark Barrington-Ward, Oxford