Sir – It was extremely heartening to see your informative front page headline, highlighting again the grave risk of flooding in North Witney, Hailey and the surrounding area.

If the fields earmarked for development in WODC’s Local Plan are indeed concreted over, and the proposed 1,000 houses crammed in, they will tip the finely-tuned balance of our already compromised infrastructure. Your newspaper has been instrumental in keeping Witney informed of these development plans, and for that I thank you.

While I had the privilege of serving Witney’s North Ward on WODC, the North Witney development was the number one concern on constituents’ minds. North Witney Action Group have been tirelessly providing well researched evidence against these hare-brained proposals for some time, along with of course, renowned public servants like Cllr Richard Langridge. Cllr Enright’s Labour group were also wise enough to vote against the severely flawed Local Plan in early 2015.

I reluctantly had to resign as a North Witney councillor in 2015 – but it was Cllr Langridge that taught me what being an elected member really was, and that was to put community before party. Since my resignation and Cllr Hoare’s election as North Dorset’s MP, Cllr Langridge became his group’s lone voice on WODC, still diligently keeping to his election promises, and fighting the destructive and bull-headed “North Witney development” proposals.

I have to say that I’ve been wholly disappointed with the resounding silence from my other elected representatives, when it comes to fighting this disastrous development plan.

Might I suggest they take a leaf out of Cllr Langridge’s book?

David Snow
Bakers Piece
Witney