A COUPLE of weeks ago, I went to Oxford to meet up with a couple of friends with whom I did nurse training.

The last time I was in Oxford was back in 1975-76 doing a six-month stint in the Radcliffe Infirmary as a staff nurse on ITU.

What has happened to Oxford city centre? This is not the Oxford I remember.

Granted, time moves on, things change but my abiding memory of Oxford this time was a city overrun by tourists and never-ending streams of buses, with continual traffic hold-ups and a city that appeared to have come to a complete standstill.

I reckon many visitors arrive thinking they’re going to find the Dreaming Spires as seen on Inspector Morse programmes. What a shock.

Places need to move on but I’d now think long and hard before returning to Oxford.

Hopefully, having communicated our displeasure to the general manager of Holiday Inn Express after being ripped off by a local taxi company driver, the local taxi firms will stick to their fixed rate fares and not rip-off unsuspecting visitors. It’s not right, particularly to take advantage of foreign visitors.

I guess what’s happened to Oxford is that it’s become a huge victim of its own success.

PAT HUXTABLE
Nettlestone Road, Southsea, Hants