Sir – John Tanner (letter, October 1) suggests that local councillors should decide the layout of controlled parking in Oxford. He rightly stresses the needs of pedestrians, visitors, clients of local businesses, and cyclists.

Long ago, the city council set up the East Oxford parking zone. As a result, residents of James Street (and many others) today enjoy a pleasing streetscape, with parking on one side at a time only, and no parking on the footway.

With John Tanner in charge, the consultation in my street would have gone as follows: l We know many of you are dead against footway parking. However, the way most (not all) of you park now, a John Lewis lorry has a perfect right to snap off your wing mirror, because it’s an illegal obstruction of the Queen’s highway. Frankly, we should have imposed parking on one side only long ago.

l On alternating sides of your street, there will be no parking at all. Opposite, we will provide some cycle hoops, and reserve spaces during the day solely for visitors, tradesmen, and clients. Overnight, there’ll be about 40 spaces for residents and their visitors. That’s less than half what you, illegally, use now. Please vote. Shall we (a) allocate 40 free permits by lot; or (b) issue 100 free permits, and leave you to fight for spaces?

The logic is impeccable. But I don’t think it’s quite the crowd-pleaser that John imagines. On the other hand, if the county had had the courage to put it as honestly as that, more people would have accepted footway parking.

Nicholas Lawrence Oxford