Sir – I agree with Dr Peter Rawcliffe of the Oxford Flood Alliance (Letters, January 14) of the need for a flood strategy for Oxford.

At the Examination in Public of the Oxford City Core Strategy for the period up to 2026 the Oxfordshire Green Party pointed out the need for planning policies and advice to be developed for sustainable urban drainage.

Although there is a serious threat from riverine flooding originating upstream, problems would be greatly mitigated if planning policies here and elsewhere incorporated guidance to prevent excessive run-off of water.

This would include policies and advice on green roofs, water butts, tanks, ponds and the conservation and development of larger-scale wetland habitats.

Guidance on building technique, materials and the extant and type of hard landscaping could also help to reduce water run-off, as would areas of tree planting with species that could absorb a lot of potential water. At the moment, planning policies are largely directed at merely limiting new development in the floodplain — they need rather to look at the water flow and catchment throughout Oxford, how planning and development has contributed to flooding problems and how this can be mitigated in the future by some of the measures mentioned above. The inspector at the examination, when I raised this, suggested that this was a matter that the council could get together and discuss with me.

I, therefore, wrote to council planning officers at the time last summer saying I would be pleased to enter into dialogue with them on planning guidance on sustainable urban drainage. I have as yet had no reply to my letter.

Judy Chipchase, Oxford