Sir, "Brass is a very durable material" according to Peter Coleman, of Building Design Partnership, fussing over the details of a store described as the "flagship" building of a massive scheme about which the public have not been properly consulted (Report, May 5).

Indeed, brass is so durable that it has been attiring the necks of developers and their partners since before the heyday of retail architecture in the last century. And this is also how pavement peddlers in London's Oxford Street talk, before they're moved off by the police public servants of tougher mettle than those normally at the helm of Oxford City Council. Nothing very "modern and contemporary" about this flashy distracting routine.

Richard Cable (Capital Shopping) tells us that the John Lewis store illustrated in the report will still be looking good in 60 years but what's so good about this design that they had to burn up fuel gadding around Europe for ideas when there's no reason why comparable results couldn't have emerged from a lone designer in a darkened room?

It seems that the aesthetic appeal of this architectural paragon depends upon the effects imparted by the trees, so just lose the building and have more trees.

Given the recent leaps in public awareness about climate change, it requires an unsustainably brass neck to suppose that we will be shopping for luxuries on anything like the present scale in ten years let alone 60.

Public consultation, so far, seems only to have consisted of the presentation, by those poised to swoop for profits, of a fait accompli one illustrated by flash graphics and embalmed in a spirit of no tomorrow. If this monstrous scheme goes ahead, Oxford will brassed off into perpetuity regardless of which metal is cladding its flagship.

Susan Heeks, Cowley