Sir – I am writing to in response to your front-page story (December 30) and agree with the majority of opinion that the Didcot Gateway development is too much overdevelopment on such a small site.

I think the clue is in the name and the land should be a park; this would be the Park Way in to the Orchard Centre and town.

There could still be cafés and restaurants within and from the Vauxhall roundabout to the Aldi roundabout there could be an avenue of trees welcoming you in to our new ‘Garden Town’ status.

Surely this would be a better impression to anyone visiting Didcot compared to the seven-storey hotel and 300 homes crammed into this site?

This will surely be a major traffic gridlock problem with all the vehicles trying to get to the homes/hotel/station.

We seem to want to swap one eyesore, the power station chimneys, with another, a high-rise hotel where the residents will be able to look in to our gardens.

I have a grandson who goes to Lydalls Road nursery and passionately believe that this should be kept, as this is a brilliant site surrounded by mature trees and is a superb facility for our local infants to start their education.

I also believe that the Prince of Wales pub should be kept in the new development as part of the railway heritage of Didcot.

Paul Smout
Edinburgh Drive
Didcot