I deeply regret that my recent letter to you on the subject of the new repatriation route through Brize Norton (Oxford Mail, May 5) could, in any way, give the impression that I was personally being disrespectful towards the memory of the soldiers killed in the war in Afganistan.

I can assure you that simply is not the case, in fact quite the opposite.

Apart from pointing out the impractical aspects of this route through the single narrow road in Brize Norton, I was writing in the context that by planning to take the funeral cortege of these brave young men out of the back door of the base, then through our village, and barely touching the outskirts of Carterton before going on its way to the John Radcliffe Hospital, the authorities weren’t being fair to them, or the people of Carterton, and that they deserved better than that.

I’m sorry if my letter was misconstrued otherwise, but that really was the point I was trying to make and I would find it quite hurtful if anyone should think otherwise.

This is particularly the case now that it has been shown that a funeral hearse can comfortably ride over speed humps in the road.

There is, however, no reason why funeral corteges shouldn’t exit from one of the gates in Carterton, go through at least part of the town, and then on to the facilities provided for visitors on the outskirts.

Bob Hounslow, Brize Norton