Sir, I have received the "consultation questionnaire" regarding the introduction of charges for residents' parking.

As anyone who has inspected this document will know, the questions are completely slanted towards acquiescence with the county council's policy and would suggest that anyone who disagreed was being unreasonable and churlish.

I, however, disagree strongly on the grounds that the prime reason for the introduction of residents' parking zones was not to benefit the residents, but to ensure that incoming commuters, shoppers, visitors etc would be forced into paid parking spaces, rather than enjoying free parking in residential streets and it is from this source of revenue that the cost of administering residents' parking should rightly be funded.

The fact that the county council has seen fit to lose revenue by waiving on-street parking charges in the evening and on Sundays does not justify its recovery by the introduction of charges for residents' parking. Residents are already sufficiently penalised by high council taxes, limited number of visits by friends and family and the difficulty of finding anywhere to park at all. The county council urges us to support a consistent policy (which could equally be achieved by removing charges across the whole of Oxfordshire) and that the introduction is acceptable because it is a "widely accepted principle" (as were slavery, paying for basic education and healthcare in their time).

Let us make sure that the views expressed in this "consultation" are heeded by the county council either in the coming months, or at the next local elections.

Stuart Heath, Oxford