Following your article Shops fight for survival (Oxford Mail, Januuary 27) you printed my letter (February 4), in which I said that in such serious times one ought to be able to look for some guidance and assistance from our civic leaders.

Your leader column (Oxford Mail, February 20) makes the very same point, in relation to the present problems at BMW.

You rightly say Oxford City Council should examine its public service ethics, take care of its citizens, and show leadership.

The fact that a report was produced three years ago does suggest there is some intelligence at the Town Hall. However, the report was apparently due to the initiative and enterprise of a junior officer who no longer works for the council.

As to who saw what three years ago, is entirely academic and totally irrelevant.

It is no more than a complete distraction to deflect attention away from the real question – why is there no contingency plan for such an event? After all, unless one had spent the past year on the international space station or incarcerated on some remote Pacific island, one could hardly claim that all this has come as a complete surprise.

This is yet another example, in a long list, where the city council has been found wanting. I dare say councillors have been preoccupied debating whether to fly the national flag on St George’s Day, or what colour to paint the Town Hall kitchen, along with the best brains in senior management wrestling with the telephone system.

Now that the latter has been jettisoned – along with, possibly, the council’s computer system, leisure centres and park and ride car parks – it’s hard to see what there is left for them all to do.

Hopefully, with all this time on their hands, we might now see a rather more pro-active approach.

Perhaps even a bit more political control and guidance might be forthcoming.

However, on past performance, I am definitely not holding my breath.

AJ Lester, Northcourt Road, Abingdon