City councillor Mary Clarkson's letter, Covered Market has our backing (Oxford Mail, June 26), sounds oh so very familiar.

In current parlance, it might appropriately be called a 'cover version'.

How right she is to say "warm words count for nothing". Alas, as regards the Covered Market, tenants and the public at large have been fed such a diet for more years than I care to remember.

Sadly, experience dictates that there is every reason to be sceptical.

What is encouraging, however, is that the council has, at long last, recognised, and now publicly acknowledged, something the real world has always known - the historic market is in dire need of repairing, refurbishing and cleaning on a proper basis, as well as the promotion of its unique qualities.

But then again, the council's strategy for the Covered Market also recognised these principles when adopted some four years ago and we are still waiting. 'Proof of the pudding' comes to mind!

Mind, all this could be rather academic if a substantial number of tenants are forced out of business as a result of the council's high rent demands - a critical concern Mrs Clarkson so conspicuously avoids in her letter ALAN LESTER, Northcourt Road, Abingdon