Is it me? A developer wants to provide badly needed budget accommodation for visitors to Oxford.

However, the feeble excuse for refusing this development is that it will not have enough car parking spaces and that Redbridge could be used as an overflow if needed by the hotel. Apparently, the council says that the park and ride was not supposed to provide overflow parking for businesses in the city.

What on earth do they suppose the people using the park and ride are doing there?

They are going to places of work for businesses, for shoppers going to shop at businesses, to eat in restaurants run by businesses. The planners show part of what could probably be a hidden agenda by saying that there is a proposal to move coach parking from the city to Redbridge. My goodness! Just imagine all those folks who regularly use Redbridge trying to fight with all the hoards of foreign tourists (here for a day) to obtain a space on a bus.

This makes an hotel overflow pale into insignificance. It can only make locals wonder if a journey is really necessary to support businesses. Visual impact is also mentioned. Visual impact from which angle? The flats opposite are much higher than the proposed hotel and adjoin open fields. At another angle how will the building impact adversely on what is a huge car park? Come on planners, think again. The developers do not seem to be the only ones with a ‘rather flat learning curve’.

S SPENCER Beauchamp Lane Cowley