Sir – Just as time was running out to respond to the consultation on proposed housing sites in West Oxfordshire last month, a leaflet was put through my door by Crest Nicholson, the developer which wants to build houses west of Carterton.

Clearly Crest Nicholson had already wasted a tidy sum on promoting this site, so I was not surprised by the content of this last-minute effort to win over the people of Carterton.

They claimed: “Development to the west will secure a new Morrisons supermarket.”

In October, the district council planning sub-committee voted in favour of the new Morrisons superstore.

It is not true that development in the east will mean schoolchildren will go to Witney.

Many of the children who live in Shilton Park attend Carterton Community College and there is no reason why, if the Carterton East development is built, that they will not go there as well.

Children living in Brize Norton go to Burford School, so perhaps as the people of Brize Norton are so supportive of the west development proposal, they will ask for their children to go to the community college?

The New Homes Bonus will be available if the development goes where the council suggested in its consultation. Yet the Crest Nicholson leaflet suggested it would only be available if the houses go to the west.

Carterton Town Council wants more houses here so that developers will help pay for new infrastructure. This will not happen if it is in the west, because just beneath the soil there is Cotswold stone and it will be a very difficult and costly site to develop.

With this in mind, there would be less money from Crest Nicholson than other developers, because the west will be more difficult to develop.

The real reason why Crest Nicholson is so keen to win over people in Carterton is because once 1,000 houses are allowed in the west, there is nothing to stop it continuing.

Miranda French (Gazette Letters, December 12) said Christ Church and Bloor Homes would make a tidy sum if their land was developed. Crest Nicholson would make a massive fortune if their site was chosen.

Mick Mills, Edgeworth Drive, Carterton