Sir, Mr Clinton Pugh, owner of Caf CoCo and Kazbar, (Letters, September 8) accused me of "misleading the public" and of being a "counter-productive influence" in my objections to his planning application for Dawson Street, Cowley Road (my letter, September 1).

He describes his application as "a proposal for a public square" and his full-page advert purported to show the scheme that we have been objecting to. But the truth is that it is a fundamentally amended scheme that has attempted to meet some of our objections but which has also increased the number of tables from 12-17!

More to the point, I speak for Common Ground, a broad, diverse alliance that stands firmly on the simple principle of defending the integrity of public space, for public use, in perpetuity.

Mr Pugh states that he has 3,000 signatures supporting his plans - apart from the fact that his plans keep changing - the simple stark truth is that his petition states: "Caf CoCo and Kazbar are trying to persuade the Oxford city and county councils to turn the Cowley Road end of Dawson Street into a public square. We would like to obtain a licence to serve customers within this square. If you think this would be a positive addition to the Cowley Road please sign below."

But Mr Pugh is in fact applying for change of use, through planning, of 161m of Dawson Street from public space to A3 (restaurant use).

We submit that his petition supports our proposal that once we have designated and established the Dawson Street garden square he can apply for a pavement trading licence (like all the other cafs/restaurants on the Cowley Road) and the number and siting of tables and chairs should be proportional and peripheral.

Erica Steinhauer, Oxford