Sir – Over the last few weeks you have printed many letters protesting at the huge numbers of students from language schools outside Oxford who are continually blocking the pavements at Carfax, particulary on Saturday afternoons, and generally getting in the way. It has been a general theme that they show no identifiable interest in historic buildings, and are sometimes badly controlled by the young “staff” who accompany them.

As a variant on this, I might add that I have seen a kind of cricket being played in Cornmarket, complete with overarm bowling and a proper sort of bat, which must surely have been dangerous to the many passers-by and bystanders.

I have a suggestion, which would need to be circulated to the offending schools and then might be quite effective. When they bring students to Oxford, the schools should firmly advertise two tours, and insist that the students enrol on one or the other in advance, but not both. These would be a shopping tour, and a historic tour.

Those who opt for the shopping tour could be left at Cowley Centre, and picked up there on the way home. Only those who opted for the historic tour would actually be brought into Oxford proper, and with the best of the staff available, they would be conducted on suitable routes. Cowley, which has no bottleneck comparable to Carfax, could easily accommodate the shoppers, and would be glad of the trade.

I don’t believe that the language schools actually based in Oxford cause unreasonable problems considering the benefits they bring to all kinds of people in the city. The worst trait of their students is, as always, standing near the front of buses and refusing to pass along the bus, thereby making the bus seem full when it isn’t, and making it difficult to get off at stops before the terminus.

As our summer passes away, the problems will cease, but discussions should be in hand to improve matters next year.

Roger Moreton, Oxford