Sir – It seems incredible how today’s slow and expensive road works are strangling Oxford. But Tory county leader Keith Mitchell and transport supremo Ian Hudspeth still have the effrontery to claim that the bus companies proposal to introduce joint ticketing over 18 months will mean “we could have far too long to wait”.

Make no mistake, the Tory scheme “Transform Oxford” will cost taxpayers millions of pounds, and even if they stay on their own schedule, they will take four years to complete. The main purpose of both parties is to reduce the number of buses in the centre of Oxford.

The bus companies want to do this by co-operating with tickets that can be used on each other’s buses and reducing the number of buses plying the same routes at the same time. They are keen to do this now there are changes to bus regulations.

The county council, however, wants to achieve the same ambition by expensively repositioning bus stops and altering street layouts. Its budget only for the first year will exceed £1m.

When you consider the number of residents’ groups clamouring for pedestrian crossings, traffic calming, and minor road improvements that the county council (apparently) can’t afford, it is unbelievable that county Tories want to press ahead with their own expensive and ill-considered scheme rather than accept the joint bus companies’ plan.

John Sanders, Labour Oxfordshire county councillor