Sir – The traders of St Clements are right to feel aggrieved at the threat to their livelihood posed by the plan for student accommodation on the car park adjacent to the Florey Building (Report, October 28).

Leaving aside the question of the creeping student ghettoisation of East Oxford, the very worst aspect of this proposal is the city council’s clear conflict of interest.

The council will gain financially from the development going ahead, yet those who are in a position to greenlight it are the officers of its own planning department.

This is evidently what passes for due process in local government circles: a similar instance was Oxfordshire County Council’s attempt to foist a CPZ on East Oxford, which involved the results of the ‘consultation’ procedure being collated by the very same contractors who stood to profit from implementation of the scheme.

That particular turkey was recently — and mercifully — strangled by economic constraints. But the basic point remains: do the functionaries in city and County Hall really expect us to buy this sick parody of democracy?

The St Clements business community might consider citing the city council for maladministration with the Local Government Ombudsman if this ill-conceived and damaging plan is approved.

Peter Lewis, Oxford