Sir — Last week we saw the headline Proposed eco-town to bring in 15,000 new jobs. I am sceptical that the developer's intentions are honourable, but I decided (not for the first time) to test my scepticism.

At the end of the article, on page three, it says "The developer says it hopes the settlement can achieve "water neutrality" through water harvesting and treatment of waste water".

Although it sounded good, I didn't know what 'water neutrality' meant, so I went to Parkridge's Weston Otmoor website and looked at the part of their masterplan that deals with water.

It says "The long-term aspiration for Weston Otmoor is to achieve water neutrality, ie no net increase in water consumption over a year. More specifically, methods will be explored in accordance with the following aspirations, to reduce the demand on the mains water supply thus becoming self-sufficient with respect to the development's water requirements."

I still didn't know what water neutrality meant, and if you are only reducing the demand, not eliminating it, how can it become self-sufficient?

I then found a definition of 'water neutrality' on the Environment Agency website. It says "If the development was to be water neutral then the total demand for water should be the same after the new development is built, as it was before. That is, the new demand for water should be offset in the existing community by making existing homes and buildings in the area more water efficient." What does Parkridge's use of the term water neutrality tell us? I'm still sceptical!

Steve Gerrish, Kidlington