Sir – You report that the previous scheme for the ‘Magnet’ (the Science Discovery Centre) has been replaced with a design for something smaller and less overpowering (Report, October 17).

We have not seen the new plans, as we were not invited to the presentation, despite the fact that (as you mentioned) it was we who proposed the Register Office for listing, and we who discovered that, despite English Heritage’s recommendation, the building was turned down by the Secretary of State, obviously influenced by the county council’s insistence on the importance of the project.

As listing is supposed to be based purely on architectural merit, we asked for a review of the decision, but this was not allowed. Debbie Dance, of the Oxford Preservation Trust, is quoted as saying that “Oxford could [still] end up with the exciting Foster building we are all looking for”.

Well, not “all”of us, if it involves the destruction of the admirable Register Office building (and the transference of weddings to a basement in County Hall).

In any case, we are most unlikely to get a building designed by Foster himself, and the low level of design to which his firm can sink is clearly shown by the dismal social science building at St Cross.

If this science centre needs to be built, it must be on a different site.

Peter Howell, Secretary, The Victorian Group of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society