Sir – While few would disagree with Beryl Addison’s comments (Do not allow Oxford to turn into a theme park, (Letters, August 4)), she is mistaken in her apparent belief that the huge numbers of foreign students thronging the streets are attending language schools in our city.

The vast majority of them, in fact, are visiting the city on a day trip and are living and studying in schools in towns and cities elsewhere.

This is particularly true on Saturdays, as most of the many summer schools in the UK offer programmes which include a full-day excursion to places of interest at weekends; the students arrive in Oxford by coach, are disgorged in the Oxpens coach park next to the ice-skating rink, and are led off in huge groups to wander the city. Some come by train, evidenced by the fact that she found students ‘sprawled over’ the steps leading to the station entrance.

There are certainly not 70 language schools in Oxford — instead, a dozen or so year-round English language institutions, some of which operate a separate junior summer school in July and August, and perhaps another 15 or 20 that spring into existence at the start of July and shrivel to nothing in late August.

There is no question that the clogged streets of Oxford during the summer are unpleasantly busy, but it is unfair to blame the city’s language schools; and perhaps we should bear in mind that these hordes of foreign students bring custom and revenue to our local community, at a time when the country is desperately in need of overseas income.

Peter Thompson, Headington