Sir, Your issue of May 26 carried a front-page article and an editorial on the House of Lords decision regarding the Trap Grounds.

The article referred to local residents who are trying to defend this unique site as "Environmentalists", suggesting that they are in a minority, to be classed with those who resisted the Newbury Bypass and the Oxford Station site development.

But the mere fact that concerned and law-abiding residents have been able to raise five-figure sums in small donations to defend their position through the courts demonstrates the strength of local feeling.

Your editorial appeared to accept the views promulgated by certain councilors on a number of points, all of which are questionable. Does the adjacent school really oppose the creation of a town green? I suspect that it would like to be left to do its excellent work without serving as a political football.

Similarly, would it really be safer to abandon the controlled access to the school through Aristotle Lane and re-route the traffic through a densely populated housing estate? Would the residents of that estate agree? More affordable housing is needed in the city, but is this the way to do it? The need is for several thousand houses. Putting a few at the remote, flood-prone extremity of a large estate, without public transport or shopping facilities, seems a very poor answer to the problem. A radical new approach is needed. It is to be hoped that the new balance of power in the council will enable it to accept that the policies of the old administration had serious flaws.

This should be the moment to abandon the idea of the new road, register the Trap Grounds as a town green, and let the school get on with its job.

N. L. Gregory, Oxford