Sir - A sign has gone up at Bonn Square advertising that work to transform it into a dynamic urban space with a unified, uncluttered look is to start in January.

This work will apparently include an arts totem, whatever one of those is.

What the public relations consultant hired to produce these thrilling words failed to mention was that the changes would also involve the chopping down of all existing mature trees, an end to the grassy areas and flowers, and the removal of the gravestones that provide a last link with the lost church of St Peter le Bailey.

All these will be replaced by a barren sandstone pavement (undoubtedly soon to be pock-marked with chewing gum) edged by a few new and shrubby looking trees. We seem to be moving to a situation in central Oxford where the only green spaces are behind the locked gates of colleges.

The financial aspect of this scheme is also troubling. It was reported on October 17 that there was a £400,000 funding shortfall that the city council must raise.

This at a time when we are told that there is a multi-million pound hole in the council's budget, and in a year when many children's playgrounds have been threatened with closure due to lack of money. Should now be the time for the city council to be funding such a money-burning scheme?

I understand that planning permission for the Bonn Square project was gained in 2006. But is it really too late to prevent what ultimately amounts to little more than an act of environmental and historical vandalism?

Chris Brewer, Oxford