Sir, It is kind of Oliver Lovell, of Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos, to advocate the flooding, at huge expense to the Oxford ratepayer, of the most popular city car park.

If he would like to indicate a really useful area of Moreton-in-Marsh, I will suggest its redevelopment, to my taste, providing I don't have to pay for it.

Oxford is hardly short of scenic areas, available, if seldom used, to all. A small pond on the Worcester Street car park would not remotely change the area there into a beauty spot, but it would deprive the entertainment district of a valuable amenity, for thousands of residents and visitors, not just the odd boater.

By the way, this never was a basin, but a channelled wharf area running under where Nuffield College, which owns the site, is now.

The whole topography has altered since those days, and it would be no simple matter to bring water, never mind boats, into it.

Bill Leonard, Oxford