Councillor Bob Price's stinging criticism of your reporting of the Oxford Covered Market issue (Oxford Mail, August 21) is intemperate and wholly unjustified.

If he reflects, he will see the report was fair, well-balanced and faithful to council reports. To suggest it was an invention of your journalist is cynical and vacuous.

When the sale of the market was mentioned in our newsletter to market tenants in May, based on council reports, Mr Price accused me of re-running a "canard" -- a false rumour.

He should show more maturity and objectivity and listen to the genuine concerns and views of others before launching into such comments.

The fact is the council earlier this year considered the sale of the market as an option and again included it in a report, under Councillor Price's name, in the executive board agenda for August 4, although, depending on which of his letters one reads, he is clearly not sure on this point.

The council's asset management plan, a statutory document according to the council's acting chief executive, identifies the market for possible disposal.

Such a sale could, for example, be forced on the council by the Government or, for that matter, a substantial shortfall in revenue might lead to a similar outcome. Your comment summed up the issues succinctly and accurately.

The report repeated our concerns and rightly pointed out that, although there was at present no serious proposal to dispose of the market, the council could give no guarantee that it would not be sold in future.

I had considered using Councillor Price's reference to the "dog days of a hot August" to excuse his own confused state, but his own report on a possible sale was considered by the council's executive as far back as April.

ALAN LESTER

Chairman

Covered Market

Tenants Association

High Street

Oxford