Sir, In February this year, Oxford City Council adopted its new Oxford Climate Change Action Plan which includes their declared target (among others) to "Transform Oxford into a sustainable city (Reduce CO2 emissions by 15 per cent by 2010 - from 2005 baseline)".

Then in July, the city council adopted a Natural Resources Impact Analysis (NRIA) which judges large planning applications against sustainable building criteria.

The action plan and the NRIA are seriously good moves on behalf of us all, showing that the council takes the threat of climate change seriously.

But what's this? Having studied and sent in comments on the planning application for the new Westgate Centre, specifically the "Sustainability Statement", we find that council officers have neglected to mention in their report to the planning committee that the plan fails to achieve the minimum score on the NRIA. Our detailed analysis of the application reveals the reason for the failure - and that is because the Westgate Partnership has designed a standard shopping centre and tried to tack on sustainability. For the same effort, they could have started with sustainable building in mind and be way ahead of where they are now.

Write to your local councillor now, and to members of the strategic development control committee, if you have concerns about this glossing over of council policy. The committee makes its decision on Monday, October 30.

I write on behalf of a small local group acting to encourage local government in Oxfordshire to consider climate change issues in everything they do for us.

Steve Gerrish, Kidlington