Sir – The controlled parking zone (CPZ) is a one-size-fits-all piece of paternalistic bureaucracy that will adversely affect householders and small businesses throughout East Oxford. If its proponents (Letters, March 15) think it right and proper that one man, representing a party that has no electoral mandate in the city, should have the right to decide on its implementation, then all I can say is that they have a pretty bizarre concept of democracy.

In attempting to defend the indefensible, their quotation in extenso of councillor Ian Hudspeth’s own ‘spin’ on the county’s road funding only goes to show just how gullible they are. And, lest we forget, they speak for a clear minority of residents across the whole of East Oxford, as demonstrated by the results of repeated consultations.

Peter Lewis, Oxford