Sir – I believe all the residents of Witney and the surrounding area will welcome the opening of the Marriotts Close with the new job opportunities and increased shopping outlets. However I have yet to find anyone who approves of the actual construction of the development. In the Daily Mail, on June 16, was an article about the demolition of a property in the Yorkshire village of Ingleby Arncliffe, after a five-year legal battle. Although the builder had been granted outline planning permission, final approval had not been given, but he had completed the construction of his home.

He eventually lost his bid for retrospective planning permission, after the High Court agreed that the property was ‘dominant and visually intrusive by virtue of his height, bulk, and colour’ and ‘harmed the character and appearance of the surrounding area’.

I feel that this description equally applies to the Marriotts Close development, and I fail to see how anyone in our local planning department could have approved what I and many other residents of Witney consider a ‘blot on the landscape’.

R J Franklin, Witney