IT WOULD appear from recent stories in the Oxford Mail, that our city’s bus service is under attack from every side.

The county council wants to reduce the number of buses in Queen Street by 50 per cent this summer, missing most of the bus stops to St Aldate’s and increasing northbound bus traffic in St Aldate’s by 26 each hour.

It wants full pedestrianisation of Queen Street by 2011. The residents and businesses in St Aldate’s wish this to be achieved, without increasing bus movements in their road.

The Mogford/Mitchell plan, supported by the colleges and traders, seeks a 60 per cent reduction in buses using High Street. County Council leader Keith Mitchell seems to foresee the age of articulated cattle trucks, as in London (31 seated, 130 standing), to shuttle passengers to The Plain, as infrequently as possible.

Oxford City Council, meanwhile, intends to introduce a low emissions zone in the city centre for buses and coaches by 2013. This will mean the replacement of about half of the city’s bus fleet, within four years.

Oxford’s bus services have never before come under such a sustained and widespread attack.

Bus users must stand up for their bus services, before they are totally dismantled by the powers that be.

SE ROBERTS, Compton Drive, Abingdon