My favourite view from any Oxford restaurant is that supplied from Quod, in High Street. But not at the moment. A reader has kindly sent me the photograph above, which shows the startling sight through the restaurant’s front door at present, with a JCB digger interrupting the usual vista of All Souls College, the Sheldonian Theatre and the University Church.

How much longer, one wonders, are these wretched roadworks going on? And did they need to be so incredibly long-winded?

I understand the need not to work through the night, with all the disturbance this would cause to colleges and, indeed, to the Old Bank Hotel above Quod. But in the interest of speeding up the whole operation, couldn’t the working day have been extended into the evening? Walking up the High on Monday, I noticed that all the workmen (are road gangs still all men?) had gone home by 5.30pm.

Of course, even when the work is finished this beautiful street will not look as it should, because of all the buses. A way must be found to remove them.