Sir – I must take issue with the chairman of the Oxford Civic Society (Letters, January 12) about his wish to see the A40 northern ring-road become a “boulevard”, which is, I fear, an evocative name to mask the inevitably soulless character of the thoroughfare that would be produced.

There is, in reality little prospect that this change would, as he hopes, make the new community at Barton “integrated with and connected to the rest of the city”.

Your readers can see the problem with this if they look at Sunderland Avenue (the ring-road between the Banbury and Woodstock Roads): discussions with local residents or councillors confirm that there is little meaningful contact between the households on the two sides of that road.

Moreover, if the northern bypass became the route of the ‘eastern arc’ of the proposed rapid transport system, as mentioned in the Barton Area Action Plan, the claim that the boulevard would have a humanising effect would be even more ludicrous.

My fear is that the “boulevard” scheme could act as a trojan horse, which would in practice encourage the progressive suburbanisation of the surviving green spaces between Barton and the rest of the city: Ruskin College is already trying to develop their historic meadows on the Headington side of the ring-road.

They have so far been rebuffed but this change to the character of the ring-road could encourage them to try again and the various individuals who own other fields on either side of Ruskin’s holdings could feel that this change implicitly invited them to put in similar proposals, which, if approved, would create a domino effect.

The cumulative effect of this would be infill which would do incalculable damage to the ecology of the area and a potentially huge loss of open spaces from the Northway Estate to the London Road. Let’s leave well alone!

Robert Grimley, Headington