Sir — The county council's Ambitious proposal to pedestrianise city (Report, October 24) has already, inevitably, attracted negative comment. I suggest there are two basic issues which critics do not face.

The first comes from a failure to address the fundamental question — do we want to pedestrianise the central area of Oxford or not? We cannot have buses taking us all to whichever part of the city centre we want to go to, and expect pedestrianised streets when we get there. We cannot have it both ways.

Should we pedestrianise High Street, George Street, Broad Street, Magdalen Street and the rest? If so, we cannot have buses there as well, look at the Queen Street disaster! The bus companies here do a good job but they should exist to serve our needs, not vice versa.

York has been mentioned as a model. Large swathes of that (no less historic) city have been pedestrianised. They made the brave decision to do it and then sorted out bus problems, not the other way round.

Many other major cities did the same thing years ago. People adjust to different patterns of using the city centres.

The second, consequent, issue is one of consultation. The county has, rightly in my opinion, started from the point of accepting that, for environmental reasons/protecting historic buildings/improving the experience of city users/catering for tourists etc. these plans must be brought in.

The consultation is therefore not one of 'yes or no?' but 'how?' and of course there are implications for us all. But I, for one, want to improve and protect this beautiful city and that means change. I say let's do it. (I should add that I presently use the buses from Marston to High Street.) John Batey, Old Marston