I THINK we can all agree that the council’s piecemeal approach to modernising the infrastructure of the city, while purporting to minimise disruption, serves only to prolong it.

Oxford is an ancient city, its roads not made for the omnibus and hybrid taxi.

Cowley Road, despite being symbolic of the might of the motor car is hopelessly inadequate; potholed and pockmarked, a danger to drivers and cyclists.

Again, despite Oxford’s history of industry, its approach, as a city, to the effects of modernisation is pure Procrusteanism.

We try (in vain) to limit the motor car by creating a labyrinth of one way streets and semi pedestrianised zones. We should, like FT Marinetti, be overawed by the beauty of the engine. Let the car guide us, not the other way around.

My solution to the prospect of years of roadworks and disruption is simple, if drastic.

Oxford must start again. It is more than its decrepit colleges; it stands for more than sandstone quads. Logic has been relegated to a cobbled alley, nothing more than a tourist curiosity. It is certainly lacking in any planning committee.

Flatten the city as it is, and rebuild along logical, efficient lines. Look to Milton Keynes, to Welwyn Garden City.

The men that built Mob Quad didn’t build a wooden hut to appeal to the inchoate and distracting pull of tradition.

City planners, be bold: you have nothing to lose but your chains.

R WILDER
Cowley