Bypass not boulevard

 Sir – I don’t know whether to be alarmed or amused by Oxford City Council ’s ludicrously-named “Barton Area Action Plan”. Centred on what the council calls a “strategic development site” (translation: some fields earmarked for a housing estate), it proposes that large numbers of houses be built alongside Oxford’s northern bypass: an extremely busy dual carriageway — in effect, a motorway. Anyone who has travelled on that same road into London, with mile upon mile of blighted properties where no one wants to live, will know the likely result. Perhaps sensing this, the planners want to “integrate” the new housing with the rest of Oxford across the bypass, by turning the latter into a “boulevard”, with a lowered speed limit and pedestrian crossings. In the process, they want to cut down lots of trees (which, at present, screen the road almost completely, making it relatively pleasant for those living nearby). They seem to have forgotten that the bypass was built to carry traffic past built-up areas, not through them. And a boulevard is a place where people stroll, take the air, sit in cafés chatting, etc.