Sir – I should like to ask the student, who described to Radio Oxford her compulsion to jump off Magdalen Bridge as soon as the May Morning closure had expired, if she had considered the effects of her action upon other people who may also wish to enjoy the festival in a less ostentatious way.

With the police taking an intransigent attitude to the necessity of closing the bridge, it seems that her action will merely consolidate their resolve to keep the residents of East Oxford away from the fun for the foreseeable future.

But I should also like to ask the police to consider alternative ways of preventing the jumping which do not also prevent East Oxford pedestrians, if they wish to cross the bridge, from hearing the singing and partaking in the subsequent early-morning festivities. I think Rick Taylor’s idea in last week’s letters, of mooring punts directly beneath the parapets, an excellent one, but what about this perhaps more straightforward alternative: Why could the barriers not be rotated through 90 degrees and be deployed in two lines along the bridge, about ten feet from the parapets, allowing a central passageway for people (and emergency vehicles) who simply wish to cross, but who would be unable to approach the edge overlooking the river?

If, in addition, a bye-law could be passed imposing a specific penalty, such as a week’s community service, to anyone jumping, purely as a deterrent, surely this would be enough to open the bridge!

But perhaps our progressive legal system no longer allows for such simple expedients.

Ken Weavers, Headington