OXFORD City Council's plans to improve cycling safety in the city, (last Friday’s Oxford Mail), are truly welcome, particularly under the Botley Road railway bridge and the approach to it from the west, which has been far too dangerous for far too long.

Nevertheless, many cycling journeys do not start in the city, particularly those from the west, since the city council boundary is very close in on this side. Incentives to cyclists in the city can come at a high nuisance factor for others further out if narrow side streets are rendered barely negotiable for residents and local traffic, because of the inconsiderate parking of cars all day, every day, while their owners bike to and from their work elsewhere.

This is in part the result of the reintroduction of charges at the three city council-owned park-and-ride car parks at Seacourt, Pear Tree and Redbridge.

Surely finding a way around this dilemma should be part and parcel of integrated transport planning, rather than solving one problem at the expense of another further upstream?

JANET GODDEN, county councillor for North Hinksey and Wytham division, Hurst Rise Road, Oxford