I sympathise with your correspondent David Youd (Oxford Mail, January 29) regarding the noise he experiences from the A40 in Wheatley.

I might comment that having regard to his own position in the village he is lucky to enjoy such exceptional hearing, as he is some way away from the A40.

I would have thought that the noise was now fairly minimal as the M40 takes most of the heavy traffic.

Mr Youd may be interested to know that near the location of his home, back in the 1950s there was a glue factory, and that when that was ‘cooking’ noise was the least of the worries for local inhabitants and pupils at the secondary school.

Luckily, lessons appear to have been learned regarding road surfaces, following the problem that used to exist at Kidlington.

However in the case of the A40, it appears that volume of traffic is the problem, rather than the surface of the road.

Perhaps if more trees were planted alongside roadsides they would help to absorb emissions, muffle noise and even stop snow drifting across roads.

Anyway, let’s hope we enjoy a summer, for once, where we can relax in our gardens in a bit of sun while the banks and our beloved Prime Minister ensure that we will not be able to afford holidays abroad.

CHRIS PAYNE, Victoria Court, Bicester