HAVING read your report (May 7) regarding the proposal of the running of the A34 by Oxfordshire County Council, I must admit that the first thing I had to check was to make sure it was not April Fool’s Day.

The thought of an Oxfordshire County Council-run A34 narrowed to accommodate cycle/bus lanes, lay-bys closed with the land used for anti-social housing, unsynchronised traffic lights (like those used in Cowley) at every junction, speed humps with potholes on all slip roads and a 20mph restriction past any house, pub or barn that borders the road, does not bear thinking about.

But hang on, is this a chance for history to repeat itself?

Oxfordshire County Council’s history of spending the best part of the last three decades in Oxford trying to un-invent the motor car, squandering tens of millions of pounds on implementing council-sponsored daily gridlock on us all, along with road closures, the ongoing policy of road-narrowing in conjunction with 20mph speed limits on important arterial roads, is tearing the heart out of this once fine city.

This ongoing disastrous council policy has, without any doubt, gone a very long way in the decision of many a business in deciding not to increase company logistic costs by locating to Oxfordshire.

Other towns and cities get it so right. Let us all hope that after the recent local elections things can start to improve in Oxfordshire as well.

RICHARD ANDERSON
Woodfarm Road
Headington
Oxford