Sir – Not for the first time I am astonished by the whingeing of the Oxford traders who rail against traffic and parking controls (Drivers desert the city, September 2).

Apparently they want to live in a 1920s Brideshead Revisited city, in which you park your Bugatti in the street outside Buol’s or the Randolph and leave it there until you have eaten your ice or drained your gin and vermouth. Can we not ‘rescue Oxford’ from these dinosaurs?

I am a motorist, but the reason why I, and no doubt thousands of others, patronise Oxford’s city-centre shops, the Covered Market and many other enterprises is exactly because parking is severely restricted and traffic severely discouraged. Long may this remain so.

Chris Hall Turville