Sir - The recent flooding has highlighted, among wider anxieties, the inappropriateness of the university's proposal to site the Bodleian Library's massive new bookstore at Osney Mead.

This huge structure, almost the size of two football pitches and nearly twice the height of existing buildings on the site, would have a quite unacceptable impact in the locality, and in more distant views.

Its bizarre sinusoidal roof form, certainly out of keeping with Oxford's skyline, would accentuate its visibility.

The traffic route to the library will add to congestion at Frideswide Square, the worst bottleneck in the city.

But it is the hydrological drawbacks which are the most serious.

To put some of the most precious documents in the world into one of the predictably most hazardous flood risks in the country is incomprehensible enough. To compound these risks by adding to the existing problems of drainage and the huge run-off from the very large roof area must be unacceptable. The Bodleian Library is a treasure house and learning resource of world-wide significance, and its needs are urgent. It is surely time for the city and county authorities, the colleges and other major landholders to assist the university in finding an alternative acceptable site to meet its needs.

For example, the city planners have recently been talking of the development of the safeguarded land at Peartree as a "northern gateway" to the city. What might be more appropriate than an iconic building, proclaiming the city's fundamental role as a seat of learning.

We might there have a proud and arresting landmark, instead of the shamefaced warehouse at present so unfortunately proposed.

Tony Joyce, Chairman, Oxford Civic Society