Sir – The orchestrated group of Brookes’ letters in last week’s columns linger on how their university ‘Builds the Local and Regional Environment’ economically, nostalgically, educationally.

Impressive PR as ever, the arguments evade the current Built Environment issue: the Gipsy Lane site development is too big for a small urban site, and intrudes on the landscape and its permanent inhabitants. Residents’ groups have tried constructively to engage with this matter in the numerous ‘consultations’ only to be met with silly jargon and the concerns of corporate marketing.

From the CAD drawings, few would appreciate the volume of the solid rectangular mass, in parts 25.8 metres high, that will stretch the length of Headington Road from the present library to the narrow shop-lined ‘piazza’ at the western perimeter, and stretching the full depth of the site to the south. The architectural Brief was to centralize all Brookes’ activities in this one place, a surprise change to the masterplan.

The resultant ‘hub’ sets up a continual whirl of human and mechanical traffic along the demographic ‘spokes’ to and from the ‘wheel’ of halls, privately rented accommodations, and Harcourt Hill, Wheatley, and Health campuses across Oxford.

The game Brookes’ planning consultants play with government officers is expert. A few examples suffice. All boxes must be ticked for a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating regardless of design and the impact on the community. The design nod must be excised from CABE/SERDP regardless of surrounding context. Oh, and of course, mention that Brookes will not expand their population beyond one per cent per year in future, but shhhhhh, we won’t remind them that figures already doubled between 1998 and 2004, while Brookes estate was allowed to decay beyond repair.

Some taxpayers might think we have no excuse for knocking it all down now. We have disagreed neither with Brookes’ academic aspirations nor acknowleged achievements, but the gesturing of such wonders by a Tower of Babel has often proved the public folly of great ‘progressive’ institutions.

Susan Lake, Chairman, Headington Hill Residents’ Association