Sir, Once FOXCAN and the supporters of this scheme have received permission from the owners of the site, let them commission from consulting engineers a detailed structural and landscape survey of the entire area, and from it produce a fully-costed plan. Obtain firm commitments from the allegedly interested retail and other partners on whose funding they are banking, and the size of premises and terracing they would require. Assess whether the resulting 'turning basin' would be large enough to turn canal boats, and how much of it would be visible except from the surrounding buildings.

Assess the compensation due to the current owner and costs of maintenance.

As the evidence, judging by the popularity of the car park, is that more people want this land to be in its current use than support the proposal, all costs should be borne by the proposers and certainly not by any other than members of FOXCAN. Whether or not the costs are hidden in some overall fund from independent sources, it will be the public that in the end pays. As for the pious hopes that this will be a focus for the whole community, there is a community there now, of theatres, shops, restaurants, hotels, pubs, people from outside walking the existing miles of waterways' paths, and not all can walk or conveniently catch a bus.

This is a vital car park serving that community, and FOXCAN is simply another anti-car movement in disguise.

Bill Leonard, Oxford