Sir - I should like to respond to two letters in your issue of March 21. Andrew Pritchard suggests Oxford city could benefit from a tram system because one has been proposed for the eco-town at Weston-on-the-Green.

I fear there is a world of difference between planning a new town to include a tram system with funding coming from developer profits and retro-fitting a tram system into an existing medieval city.

The development gains from creating a new town of 15,000 dwellings may be sufficient to fund a tram system along with all the other goodies on offer, although I rather doubt that the developer has got his sums quite right.

Creating a tram system in Oxford city with no significant developer funding to make the initial investment is simply a non-starter.

Turning to Tony Augarde's comments, I would not dispute that Frideswide Square remains a critical pinch point in Oxford city. I hope we can develop an improved design as part of the West End redevelopment.

On a smaller scale, it is interesting that the temporary mini-roundabout at the junction of Worcester Street, Park End Street, New Road and Tidmarsh Lane is working much better than the previous traffic lights and I am urging our traffic engineers to keep it in place and to sell on the redundant traffic lights to an emerging nation!

I wholly reject Mr Augarde's criticism of our award-winning Hamburger roundabout at Headington. In terms of traffic flow and congestion reduction, this is a huge success.

Finally, turning to Abingdon, the scheme was always about moving the congestion and reducing the pollution; it was never about eliminating congestion entirely. It is easy to make political points, Mr Augarde; it is harder to find good and durable solutions.

Keith R Mitchell, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council