Sir – Now that the details of the county’s proposals for Queen Street under Phase 1 of Transform Oxford are emerging, it is easier to assess the likely benefits and disadvantages of the scheme.

Fewer buses in the street, and the removal of queueing passengers will improve conditions for pedestrians, and there should be a significant gain in the visual appearance around Carfax, along with some general decluttering.

But pavement widths cannot increase much at this stage, since the roadway has to remain wide enough for buses to pass delivery vehicles during their permitted hours, and in case a bus should break down in the street.

However, fewer buses in Queen Street mean more elsewhere, and the resiting of bus stops could merely transfer congestion from one place to another.

The county’s transport planners have clearly tried very hard to mitigate the possible disadvantages, but a problem remains on the north west side of St Aldates. Here there will be an additional concentration of bus usage and congestion.

The planners say this will just be acceptable: the bus companies say it will be unworkable. It will certainly make one important pedestrian route – from Carfax to the Central Post Office – more difficult.

How is this conflict to be resolved? One way might be by experimentally introducing the changes for a trial period. Bus stops can be moved temporarily at short notice.

This would at least give the long-suffering city population the chance to assess more directly whether the benefits of the proposals outweighed the disadvantages, indeed whether the scheme was practicable at all, before the introduction of quality partnerships with the bus companies.

Until this is clear, it seems unwise to commit the very large expenditure required for the surface treatment of Queen Street.

Tony Joyce, Chairman, Oxford Civic Society, Oxford