Sir – The practical test for Graham Paul Smith’s advocacy (Letters, July 7) of building homes on each side of the A40 to create a Boulevard at the Barton extension is to compare Sunderland Avenue with Foxwell Drive. Sunderland Avenue is dominated by traffic noise, although it has the 40mph limit suggested for Barton. It can only be crossed safely at two points.

The homes in Foxwell Drive face greenery and a children’s playground. Although there is some traffic noise, the atmosphere is relaxed. Why should residents be robbed of this in pursuit of a planning fantasy?

The rejection of the tin-hat scheme to divert the A40 round Barton means that the existing road will remain a national traffic artery. When it was dualled, care was taken to maintain its hedges, including one in the centre which makes an attractive crash barrier. It fits well into the landscape.

The boulevard scheme will not create a socially and visually satisfying environment. Reducing the A40 to a single carriageway like Sunderland Avenue is impracticable. Even with a lower speed limit it will remain noisy and crossable only at fixed points.

Two new rows of houses, separated by a dual carriageway and service roads, will appear to be not so much a street as 1930s-style ribbon development. I agree there must be new pedestrian and cycle links across the A40 and better bus services.

But the real way to show Barton is not out of mind, but an attractive, integrated city suburb is for the council and the developer to deliver the amenities for which people have asked at the same time as the new houses are built, avoiding the mistakes made at Blackbird Leys in the 1960s.

Keeping the green buffer will be best for the residents on both sides.

Mark Barrington-Ward, Oxford