Sir – We are told (Report, January 8) that the proposed £120m ‘Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme’ would protect only 1,200 homes.

We also read that “property-level protection for the [600] remaining at-risk homes would be chicken-feed compared to the cost of the conveyance”. Putting two and two together, might one conclude that, at £100,000 per dwelling for the scheme, property-level protection for all the potential at-risk properties would be rather better value for money?

Readers might like to look at recent experience of flood relief in Pickering in North Yorkshire. There were similar suggestions for an expensive scheme involving concrete channels and walls to divert floodwater around the town centre, favoured by big construction firms and their consulting engineers and costing many millions of pounds. Even its advocates conceded that it would be a significant environmental eyesore.

The Environment Agency eventually decided to defer the scheme on grounds of “weak economic case and financial viability”.

After more than 10 years of debate, a much cheaper and environmentally acceptable solution was installed, involving upstream land-management measures to contain and absorb excesses of rainfall. [http://www.eacg.org.uk/Docs/PF/Pickering_PF_Profile_final_(2).pdf ]

It is to be hoped — not least by residents of Abingdon and other areas downstream — that common sense will prevail before any commitments are made.

Greg Birdseye, Iffley