Sir - As one of the founder members of Oxist, the group started by Mary Meagher which campaigned successfully for the ice rink, I am pleased to see that there is a proposal to build a larger ice rink.

We always hoped that the rink would be Olympic standard size, so that it would attract national and international competitors, which is impossible with the present size. I have always thought Grimshaw's Cutty Sark design was a good one, though I would have preferred to see the ice rink making more use of the view of the river. I think the idea to build a bigger ice rink along with a leisure centre and swimming pool with flumes etc is a very good one and long overdue.

However, like an Olympic-sized ice rink there needs to be an Olympic standard pool. Oxford has and attracts a lot of young people, many of them very talented mentally and physically. Oxford needs to provide a better sports infrastructure.

However, Oxpens is a good central site, there are two car parks and one could be changed to multi-storey car park.

The other car park could be used as a site for a central swimming pool and leisure centre. It might be possible to extend the ice rink or make better use of its land.

It would be a pity to build on the green parkland alongside the ice rink as it is one of the few open green spaces in Oxpens. Oxpens is near the rail and bus station as well as the city centre and university.

The Westgate is being redeveloped and John Lewis is coming to Oxford. Developing Oxpens would put sports facilities in the heart of Oxford where they would be made good use of rather than out on the periphery, which would make complex transport demands on us all.

Rosanne Bostock, Oxford