Sir – You are absolutely right to highlight the fact that the county council’s draft transport plan does not address the key question of how Oxfordshire is going to deal with growing congestion over the coming decades (Leader, September 16).

Technical studies have demonstrated just how much worse traffic conditions will get in Central Oxfordshire in the absence of remedial action (because of planned population and employment growth as well as rising incomes over the longer term). The plan lists many good things the council would like to do but acknowledges the lack of resources to do them. Are we expected to believe that this is the end of the story? Can a transport authority wash its hands of responsibility simply because it hasn’t the money to do what it would like to? As far as Oxford city is concerned a ‘balanced strategy’ for managing traffic demands has been pursued successfully for several decades.

Unfortunately the limitations of this strategy are already apparent in the over-full park-and-ride car parks, prolonged queues on the Abingdon and Botley Roads and so on. In a situation where we cannot afford even to continue with ‘business as usual’ it should be self-evident that a fundamental review of strategy is required. The draft transport plan is a cop-out in this respect. There are other options available which could remedy the situation, combining local congestion charges for car use or levies on workplace parking with the use of the revenues to fund transport improvements, including alternative modes.

The plan makes no reference to these possibilities. Of course such measures are controversial and warrant extensive public debate. But if the ‘consultation period’ on a 20-year plan is not the time to have this, when is?

Peter Headicar Oxford