Sir – I am writing to protest at the development of the St Clements car park site. As a business owner in the Iffley Road we have scarcely any parking available for customers at present in the area.

Further diminution of the facilities at St Clements would harm my business. And as I sell artworks, I am afraid the park-and-ride is not an option for my customers. You cannot take a 6ft oil painting back on the bus. What makes this development so much worse is that the proposed development will result in a very large number of new residents in the area in an already over-developed location.

These students, who are normally resident for six months or a year, rarely have time to become members of the local community.

The scourge of East Oxford at present is the transitory nature of many of its residents.

Students rarely feel they have a stake in the neighbourhood and this leads on to anti-social behaviour and far greater stress on local amenities, whilst the students in question do not pay any council taxes.

Students are of course vital to Oxford, and I speak as an alumnus of Christ Church, but East Oxford is becoming far too over-developed as a student accommodation area, and development of the car park will only worsen matters, and cause student/town relations to decline.

Furthermore the students in question frequently bring cars to Oxford, so whilst the car parking will be reduced by the development, simultaneously the number of cars parked just beyond the end of the residents’ parking area will increase dramatically, as anyone who knows Iffley Fields can already see.

Finally the ‘consultation’ process for this development has been virtually non-existent.

I for one will be watching how this development is dealt with, and will remember the result when I vote in the next local elections.

Adrian Greenwood, Oxford