I WRITE regarding Oxford city councillor Ed Turner’s comment about parking and price increases in Saturday’s Oxford Mail.

Referring to the obscene 32 per cent price hike, he says: “we did not have any choice’’.

Let me please give some factual information: My family no longer shop in Oxford. Why? We will not pay the obscene rip-off parking prices.

We like driving our car, but is that a crime? I know numerous other people and families who no longer shop in Oxford either, but drive to other towns.

We now shop in Aylesbury, Reading and Swindon. We, like many others, used to enjoy the trip into Oxford city centre, but not any more.

The city council is killing commerce.

Mr Turner needs to wake-up and smell the coffee, before he and his cronies destroy Oxford’s commerce and turn the city a retail ghost town.

It seems the only thing the council is interested in is tourists and universities. As for local people, they simply do not care.

Philip Cook, Wheatley