THERE'S no doubt, of course, that blocking off Walton Street to cars could have great benefits eventually.

Air pollution and noise pollution would both go down and there would certainly be fewer car accidents.

But more than that, it's also part of a wider plan to try and encourage people in our city out of their cars and onto more environmentally-friendly forms of transport like buses and bikes.

However, as the ultimate decision on this particular contentious closure was kicked down the road yesterday, a very particular criticism was raised.

Patrick Davey, of St Bernard’s Road, told councillor Yvonne Constance directly how cars which used to use Walton Street as a rat-run were now running down his street instead, in their thousands.

Even if we accept that a gradual increase in pedestrianisation in the city will see some neighbourhoods act as 'Guinea pigs' for the rest of Oxford, the idea of other streets then having to bear the brunt of even worse air pollution and noise pollution seems completely unacceptable.

We all need to be greener and cleaner, and we cannot just move the problems around in order to get there.