Sir – Harry St John suggests a ‘rethink’ of parking charges in Oxford (Letters, November 5). I suggest not.

I live along the Abingdon Road and am extremely inconvenienced when, at busy shopping times towards Christmas, this road slows to a standstill going towards the city centre. It happens on Saturday afternoons and even Sundays at the height of the Christmas rush, and continues through the January sales.

The heavy traffic plays havoc with the local bus service which I need to get into the city centre because, like many people in my area, I don’t own a car. Mr St John feels parking charges are too high, but clearly not all car owners share this view, as many seem happy to queue up on the Abingdon Road and pay them!

Any city needs a decent transport system, and Oxford has one most of the time, but shopping peaks deny citizens and taxpayers a decent system because the system is clogged with traffic.

Mr St John’s ‘rethink’, by the laws of supply and demand, could only result in even more traffic and even more disruption to my city and my lifestyle.

With the transport system ruined, I’d have to spend thousands of pounds buying a car. My question to Mr St John, therefore, is, why should I have to invest thousands of pounds in order just to get around, to suit him?

Fortunately there is little chance of Oxford ‘withering’ as Mr St John fears. Last Sunday, New Inn Hall Street was so busy it was difficult to cycle down it, and the queues in Sainsbury’s were half the length of the shop. Clearly our councils are succeeding in attracting very large numbers of people into the city centre so is a ‘rethink’ really necessary?

Noam Bleicher (Mr), Oxford