Sir - Following your article about possible future congestion charges for Oxford (Oxford Mail, December 18), I would like to express my surprise.

I thought we already had congestion charges, in the guise of extortionate car parking costs and the ever increasing bus fares.

One of the reasons the city is congested with traffic is that traffic lights appear to be set on the main routes to allow as little traffic through as possible.

Surely with a one-way system, the traffic arriving and leaving the city should be encouraged to leave as quickly as possible by setting lights out of the city at green for a longer period?

The traffic lights at the railway station are a good example. You are lucky if six cars pass through them before they change to red. Go on, give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

Congestion charges do not alleviate the problem, they are just another tax on the motorist.

Why not ban cars from Oxford and be done with it, but then, of course, the car parks and the council would lose money. You cannot have it both ways. The council's lack of positive traffic planning has now become our emergency.

CHRIS PROBERT

Banbury Road

Kidlington