Sir – Chaos at Thornhill park-and-ride site was entirely predictable. It was utter folly to engineer a situation where two sites remained free and the other three introduced charges.

Having to pay for parking at a park-and-ride site would never have been popular — but in these very difficult financial times even less so.

The city council imposed parking charges in 1998 at their sites while the county council kept Thornhill free and built Water Eaton, also with free parking. When holding the portfolio on the city council in 2008, I negotiated with the county council for them to take over the city’s sites and provide free parking at all five sites; it made total sense for all five to be managed together.

With the swingeing cuts to local authorities this year due to the financial crisis, the county council proposed introducing a charge, probably £1, at all five sites. Officers were working on a scheme which would require long-stay parking for London or Heathrow at Thornhill to be charged more highly and a firm proposal was expected around August. Instead we had the announcement of a failure to agree terms and a return to separate management of city-run and county-run sites, with the county retaining free parking at their two sites. The breakdown of discussions between the city and county councils which led to the county handing back three sites to the city is deplorable. Both councils should hang their heads in shame at this demonstration of complete failure to work together.

Jean Fooks, Liberal Democrat city councillor for Summertown, County councillor for Summertown and Wolvercote