Sir – I would be heartbroken if I were one of the hard-working team who’d done such an excellent job to improve New Inn Hall Street, laying down stone paving slabs, sets, and an attractive stone-speckled road surface, all to a very high standard of workmanship, only for someone to daub surplus road markings all over it.

Leaving aside the botched nature of the road markings — though the incompetence with which it was done needs to be seen to be believed (was it something personal they had against the road working team?) — why cannot we follow the French and Italians, for example, who don’t feel it essential to cover all streets in the historic centres of ancient cities with this mess?

If we really feel that British motorists are stupider than those elsewhere, why did we bother to spend so much time, money and effort on upgrading New Inn Hall Street?

If we are always going to cover our streets with this white and yellow graffiti, why not do a cheaper and nastier job in the first place? Please, can Oxford begin to show a lead on this? It is not necessary for all our streets to be so ugly.

Mark Whittow, Oxford