Sir I was delighted to read, as the lead story of last week's paper, that the county council is about to improve the appearance of the High Street. We were told by the council's cabinet member for transport that the pavements will be resurfaced in York stone and that significant amounts of street clutter (ugly signs, unnecessary posts, etc.) will be removed. All of this is very good news for what should be one of Europe's most majestic streets.

What a pity, therefore, that as this announcement was being made someone else (presumably from the same transport department) was hard at work in the High Street, painting quite unnecessary yellow stripes on the kerbs, thereby doubling up the message of the roadside yellow lines. And they were doing it so badly, that indelible yellow paint is now slopped and dripped all down the street and the pavements are covered in yellow footprints. Could the first act of 'decluttering' be the removal of this mess?

Bryan Ward-Perkins, Trinity College, Oxford