Sir – What planet do Oxford’s planners live on? I assume that they do not live on one of those graceful boulevards that already exist on the ring road, like Sunderland Avenue, around the Green Road roundabout or along the edge of the southern bypass in Hinksey.

Despite the signs to Traffic approaching the city advising that through traffic should use the bypass, nobody at the city council seems to realise that the function of the ring road is to separate traffic trying to get around Oxford from local traffic and pedestrians moving through it.

There are already times when the northern bypass can be heavily congested, so adding a large development with more traffic is just going to make it worse.

Traffic entering the city from the development will either use London Road into Headington (already congested) or Marsh Lane into Marston, which is also congested at peak times and links on to other roads that can have substantial queues on them.

One of the best features of the northern bypass is the dense growth on the central reservation which helps to hide the road in the landscape and makes it less intrusive. Have the people behind this scheme ever studied this part of Oxford and how it is used through the day and through the week?

It is odd that Oxford can host two reasonably good universities, but has a city council which is definitely third rate when it comes to planning its future.

Bill Baxter, Old Marston