Sir, Your front page picture of a redeveloped Westgate Centre (June 16) offered a tantalising glimpse of the future for this benighted part of the city centre. Not just through the removal or renovation of the current buildings opposite Bonn Square but with a vision of a bus-free Queen Street. What a pity, then, to read the comments from councillor John Goddard below that it is unreasonable to expect this as part of the development.

As I understand it from your previous reports, the stumbling block for this part of the proposals is that a relatively small number of bus services use Queen Street as a terminus for their journeys by turning right into it from Castle Street. At various points I recall Worcester Street car park, Macclesfield House and Oxpens have been suggested as alternatives to using Queen Street in this way. As of course was the original idea of incorporating a central bus interchange into the Westgate proposals themselves. But surely the best solution would be for the council to require these few buses to continue down New Road and make their turn at the railway station? No new facilities would be needed, no opportunities for future development lost and, who knows, their operators might even discover that this would open up new markets for them by offering better connections to the national public transport system.

William Richter, Oxford