N your report of the planning application for Jericho’s Canalside (July 1), the developer describes the proposed public square as a relatively informal, public space, the focus for a number of activities, with the café and restaurant setting up tables and chairs outside and with farmers’ markets and concerts also taking place there.

Missing from this description are the numerous cyclists trying to find their way from north Oxford to the train station, who will have to cross the square to the new bridge over the canal, which the developer insists should lead from the square. And yet this link is claimed to be a key benefit of the development. How is this conflict of use supposed to be resolved?

The answer lies in the disclosure that cyclists will only be allowed to cycle through the square when it is quiet; at other times they will be required to dismount.

This surely is no way to provide such a vital link for so many people.

Since it is still the city council’s planning policy that the new bridge should provide the final link in this important cycle route, it is hoped that the planning authority will insist on the alternative location of the bridge, namely at the foot of Great Clarendon Street, as put forward in its own supplementary planning document.

Paradoxically, the developer proposes cycle access at the foot of Great Clarendon Street to a new towpath as part of the development. However, this is where the bridge should be because it will provide the most direct route for cyclists from north Oxford, along Walton Street, down Great Clarendon Street and across the canal, well away from the mix of uses envisaged for the new square.

NIGEL HISCOCK, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford

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