ABOUT 7,000 commuters are expected to be travelling daily to and from the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ), where the Radcliffe Hospital used to stand.

Just 100 parking spaces are currently allocated for the entire area under plans endorsed by the city council. Are they off their ROQers?

Already the dearth of spaces in term-time after 5pm means that paying resident permit holders are lucky to park within several hundred yards of home in nearby streets.

Imagine how bad it will get once seven times the current number of Oxford University Press employees also descend on Jericho, which is being ill-served by councillors who should know better, but won’t act.

There’s no technical reason why the city council should not stipulate that the ROQ needs 1,000 multi-storey underground spaces. These need not be used, if car users are to be deterred.

What happens when, regardless of “car influx policies”, demand for parking vastly outstrips supply?

If provision is not made now, citizens will be left to lump it.

There’s no excuse for such wilful shortsightedness by our representatives. I hope residents clamour to make their voices heard, and that we do so soon, because our councillors seem to lack gumption.

Colin Cook held the portfolio for development when ROQ was going through the planning process. Susanna Pressel argues that more parking provision could encourage traffic.

Jericho, like St Clement’s, already needs better parking provision, yet our authorities are frighteningly out of touch, and are missing the chance to require that underground multi-storey parking be provided close to large urban developments that bring the need for more spaces, yet will adversely affect existing parking provision in areas that already have problems.

David Hearn, Cardigan St, Jericho, Oxford