This is a reader's letter which has been sent to the Oxford Mail this week.

Since November 2022, the council has been saying that the plastic bollards in East Oxford, vandalised by criminal gangs, will be replaced by tougher steel bollards.

It has just been announced that the new bollards are to be installed in March and are to be made of timber, not steel.

The delay, we have been told by a councillor, is due to a late delivery date by the bollard supplier. 

READ AGAIN: Oxford LTN bollard flattened

Given that there are numerous suppliers of all manner of reasonably priced bollards, and given that a private citizen such as myself could order and install them within a week, I find this all very difficult to believe.

I wouldn't dare accuse those in public office of lying publicly, but they can certainly reasonably be accused of a lack of transparency. After all, presumably the promised steel bollards weren't ordered at all (?). 

READ AGAIN: Oxford LTNs removed from 11 streets for repairs 

I don't want to endlessly whinge.

The council are to be applauded for their bold environmental vision, and given the global environmental emergency whose effects will become more and more obvious even to the most ignorant of sceptics, history will no doubt judge them to be heros (if indeed we have the luxury of a history). 

However, as tax-paying residents we have a right to demand transparency, and any reasonable person would agree we have been repeatedly fobbed off. 

Daniel Emlyn-Jones

Oxford

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF