Sir – How right the CPRE is in expressing deep concern about the threat to our countryside if housing development is allowed to spread without firm control.

The Green Belt took years to agree and was the result of extensive research and discussion. Some will remember the days when “ribbon development” had spread uncontrolled along the edges of main roads, from towns and sadly villages too. 1947 planning laws saved the day and stopped the resulting housing and commercial development behind this unsightly sprawl.

County Structure Plans which used to give general guidance to future development, were only finalised after extensive public consultation. Consultation before the first New Oxfordshire Structure Plan (approved in 1979), involved officers and elected members of the county council travelling throughout the county to attend public meetings, and in the process we found that people wanted Oxfordshire to retain its splendid city and towns and to conserve the unique beauty of our villages and countryside.

We therefore went for restraint but in the next Structure Plan, where we found a similar view prevailed with concern about over-development, we discovered that we could not go for slower growth as the then Government would come in and add even greater housing numbers to the ones we wished to reject.

We must take our eyes off the small planning development and look at the larger picture and the consequences for infrastructure and roads which, as predicted, are often in gridlock already.

Learning from history (Oxfordshire’s population expanded 23 per cent from 410,000 in 1961 to 505,000 in 1971) and avoiding a “free for all” is crucial if we are to keep our beautiful county which was only partly spoiled by the Victorians as Oxfordshire was only really a backwater then and not at England’s crossroads as it is now.

Brian L. Hook, Charney Bassett