WEST Oxford is going through a building boom.

This week the City Council gave permission for 312 student housing developments on the north side of the Railway Station.

On the southern side of the station some 260 houses are planned, while building also continues at pace on the Lamarsh Road site.

West Oxford is growing. Over-subscription at the local primary school is evidence of this.

I personally welcome these developments because it adds new blood to an ageing community.

An Oxford City Council demographic survey revealed that West Oxford had the highest proportion of over-65s in the city.

Armed with all this evidence of growth and need, our local GP service have blithely announced that they are leaving West Oxford, and moving two bus journeys away.

They claim that they have the support of the Primary Care Trust, who have as their first written responsibility “representing the interests of local people”.

Nobody from the Trust has been anywhere near West Oxford and I can find no written record of them supporting the closure of our surgery.

I wrote to our MP (Nicola Blackwood) asking her to intervene, and pointing out that the Localism Bill now approved by Parliament “gives local residents the power to instigate referendums on any local issue”.

I requested from her the procedure to establish a local referendum on this issue.

As I write I have not received even an acknowledgement of my letter. So much for localism and so much for the controversial health Bill which gives GPs more control over services.

John Power, Ferry Hinksey Road, Oxford