Sir – Mr Stewart draws attention to Oxford’s having “one of the most beautiful city centres in the world” (Letters, January 21).

When tourists arrive at the railway station and pass through Frideswide Square on their way to the dreaming spires, they may think this space is quite nicely laid out now (as it usually would be in Italy), but they aren’t going to say “Wow, this is a world-class city”.

It won’t cross their minds that the subtle arrangement of flowerbeds and roundabouts is anything to write home about, and they won’t be able to find it on postcards should they ever try. We have heard far too much in recent years about things which were going to make Oxford a world-class city, (Report, December 17, 2015) even public toilets with predictably empty bookshelves and inept new-fangled hand-washing facilities (conveniences intended for tourists and shoppers but which don’t stay open beyond 5pm).

The newly-extended Westgate Centre will be a provincial improvement of little interest to the world, and will result in nothing superior to what you might expect to find in Swindon or Reading, neither of which is a city at all.

Oxford is famed for its colleges and museums and libraries, but how many readers realise that the splendid public library (much used by foreign students) is going to be closed for 18 months while the grandiose Westgate is erected?

Roger Moreton
Oxford