Sir – There is a link between the proposals to carpet West Oxfordshire with housing with that for a guided bus system linking Witney and Oxford.

Before anyone gets excited, we need to address the fundamental questions, the first being how many people the political class foresee living here and whether the existing residents are prepared to accept that number in what was — and, for some people, should stay — a tranquil rural area.

Only when we know those answers can we assess the proposal.

It might work but it has the air of a quick cheap fix aimed at silencing complaints. Will it be adequate for the population when it is completed? There needs to be an assessment of what traffic would be taken from the A40 and that will be dictated by the location of the terminus and how people will travel on from there to work. Oxford itself is congested.

Then we need to know who will use it: if it is mainly people who cycle, it will not do much good. The threat hanging over any scheme is that while it might relieve pressure on other routes into Oxford-Bladon and Botley especially — but leave the A40 as bad as ever.

A40 congestion displaces a lot of traffic to other roads that might return if it becomes the lesser of two evils.

A lot could be achieved by improving the junctions along the way including the Wolvercote and Summertown roundabouts.

Here, it is extremely difficult to read the intentions of vehicles, which makes joining traffic hesitant and wary. Consequently, traffic does not flow as well as it could.

Ralph Ingham-Johnson, Witney