WHAT a remarkable and welcome climbdown it is by the Tory county council over residents' parking in Iffley Fields (Mail, September 25).

Of course, Iffley Fields should be excluded from the proposed Controlled Parking Zone in East Oxford. All credit is due to the local residents who have campaigned so hard to prevent the imposition of residents' parking in their streets. But the remaining part of the Magdalen Road controlled parking zone (CPZ) is still full of holes.

Residents who already pay council tax will be forced to pay £55 a year extra, without any guarantee that they or their visitors will be able to find a place to park. There are no plans for on-street cycle parking, many businesses will suffer and pavement parking will be officially approved. In short life will become worse for pedestrians, cyclists and car owners. I support residents’ parking. But it should be free and should make cycling and walking easier, not more difficult. The Ridgefield Road area which bizarrely is excluded from the plans, will be turned into a nose-to-tail car park. It is squeezed between the planned Magdalen Road and Divinity Road CPZs but will have no parking controls.

The final insult is that the decisions about residents’ parking will be made by just two Tory councillors; Ian Hudspeth from Bladen and Rodney Rose from Milton-under-Wychwood. Shouldn't all this be decided by local Oxford councillors instead?

Cllr JOHN TANNER (Labour), Board Member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford, City Councillor for Littlemore & County Councillor for Isis