OXFORD City Council’s plan to transform the northern bypass into an urban boulevard sounds good but we question the motivation.

We are told the plan, which will see speed limits reduced to 40mph and new houses front directly on to the street, will cut noise and pollution.

But a new traffic light-controlled junction on a chronically congested stretch of the ring road will only add to these problems.

And the junction’s purpose will be to serve as the main entrance to a 1,000-home housing estate – a housing estate the council is developing.

Even if only a small proportion of houses take a car out at rush hour it will increase the tailbacks.

Make no mistake, this urban boulevard idea is sugar coating a fairly unpalatable pill.

We understand the council’s headache: how does it get 1,000 families in and out of its new estate without adding to rush hour misery?

But it should come clean and admit it is a pain it cannot cure.

Or at least it cannot cure it without great expense.

A traffic light junction is one of the cheapest options, cheaper than a roundabout and much cheaper than a fly-over.

We wonder what the council would say to a private developer proposing such a scheme?