Sir – Just when most of the outstanding problems with the proposed residents’ parking scheme (‘CPZ’) in the Magdalen Road area appeared sorted, along comes an unlikely alliance of local hairdressers and Labour superhero John Tanner to throw spanners in the works, via a public meeting at the Gladiators Club on November 17.

Although not a local resident, and due to illogical new division boundaries, Mr Tanner is now county councillor for part of East Oxford, and steams into a situation that has seen three consultations and careful accommodation to the local conditions by county council officers over the last two years, most recently for business parking just a few weeks ago.

At the businesses meeting, county planners agreed to extra visitors’ spaces outside one hairdresser’s Percy Street shop, yet he is still against any residents’ parking (he lives outside Oxford).

In starting a petition against the scheme, Mr Tanner is bringing party politics into what was a resident-driven attempt to regulate the dangerous over-parking that has developed in recent years in the streets between Bullingdon Road and Magdalen Road, due largely to ever-increasing student houses with cars — the problems magically vanish in the vacations.

Those opposing the scheme offer no meaningful alternatives to the unacceptable status quo, but there is a genuine issue in that streets east of Magdalen Road towards Howard Street are generally under less pressure, and many there feel that they will gain nothing for their permit money.

Residents in the area will soon be receiving a fourth (!) consultation, to consider the secession of Iffley Fields from the zone and other smaller changes. Those in favour of regulation should make sure their views are heard.

If the CPZ is lost now, it is unlikely to be reconsidered in the current financial climate.

Anthony Cheke, Oxford