Sir, The new group seeking to turn the Worcester Street car park back into a canal basin deserves the widest support. The plan would turn an extremely unattractive area into an asset that Oxford could be proud of. The Friends of the Oxford Canal (FOXcan), a group of local volunteers with no commercial interest in the proposed scheme, now needs to produce a set of draft plans to show how the basin might look. I am writing to ask your readers to donate small sums to help set up a competition for architecture students to design drawings and a visualization of the area.

The canal basin scheme needs the widest possible support from all local groups The Oxfordshire Green Party will donate £100 to the project and I very much hope other political parties and local societies will do similarly. Cheques can be sent to Diana Ashby, Treasurer, FOXcan, 70 Kingston Road, Oxford, OX2 6RJ.

Chris Goodall, Oxford