WE have attempted to be open-minded and supportive about Ian’s Innovations – those radical transport schemes the leader of Oxfordshire County Council has floated this year.

There’s been visions of a car-free city centre, trams and a raillink out to Cowley.

There was also the monorail – all big budget and radical projects Mr Hudspeth put forward to stimulate debate about sorting out Oxford’s crippling transport problems.

And it is right that he and the county council planners do this. Tinkering around the edges will not solve our problems, especially if the county’s population is to grow as has been forecast.

We need ideas that can be honed down to practical solutions that fit Oxford and Oxfordshire well into the middle of this century.

But today he brings us the notion of two tunnels for buses running under large stretches of our city.

At any time this idea would be jaw-dropping but to release it now – as drivers suffer hours of delays every morning due to the plethora of council roadworks – is inviting a torrent of criticism to rain down on him. It’s not so much that the idea is so outlandish, the question has to be why are officers sitting down working on this when the city has stuttered to a halt.

Surely, given the current problems, all their mental energy should be straining to try to discover that silver bullet to solve problems of the council’s making rather than spit-balling ideas about digging a tunnel under the prettiest parts of Oxford. And a river.


Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.