Sir – Why is it that Brize Norton residents cannot accept that everyone should have freedom of speech?

Natasha Saveall (Gazette Letters, November 14) expressed a point of view which is probably shared by more people than those of J Shorrock’s persuasion (December 5).

All she was doing was giving her point of view and saying that she thought as a Carterton resident she agreed with West Oxfordshire’s draft Local Plan, because it used the brownfield sites and Carterton East, since the beautiful open countryside on the west, with its footpaths and bridleways, provides safe walking and cycling for thousands of Carterton residents each year.

I doubt whether people in Brize Norton ever go on to Alvescot Downs but I am sure that if they had a similar piece of countryside that they had access to, they would not want it spoiled.

In their desire to stop anything getting near them, Brize Norton residents cannot understand why people in Carterton do not want the Carterton West development.

Whereas the number of homes proposed for Carterton East is limited to 700 and the site is surrounded by roads so it cannot “break out” and extend further into the countryside, this is not the case in the west.

If 1,000 homes were built in the west, it could open the floodgates to up to 3,000 more.

This is why 1,748 residents of Carterton signed a petition against the west proposal.

And many people in Carterton resented the way Brize Norton residents tried to hijack the two consultation roadshows that were held in Carterton on December 6 and 8.

At the Town Hall they were allowed to stand in the foyer. At Shilton Park the Brize Norton protesters said they were in the same room as the roadshow to “give the facts”.

Elderly people at both events felt intimidated by their attitude.

Whatever the residents of Brize Norton think about Carterton people, we are quite capable of making up our own minds.

If Carterton people had gone to the Brize Norton roadshow held in November, we would have never heard the last of it.

Ben James, Pinecroft, Carterton