Sir – What an extraordinary city Oxford is. It is blessed, in Broad Street, with one of the great urban spaces of Europe.


Nicole Rahimi realised this would make a fantastic venue for a Christmas Market and hoped that 200 traders would run the festive stalls.

This would be a great event for residents and tourists alike. But no, it won’t happen, the joyless puritans at the city council have forbidden it, apparently because there is ‘no overwhelming support’ from Broad Street ‘stakeholders’.


So at the time when Lincoln, Bath and Birmingham will be welcoming thousands of Christmas visitors to their markets, Broad Street will remain empty, bar the usual vehicles manoeuvring into the car parking spaces.


I’d suggest any Broad Street retailer who cannot see the advantages of thousands of people with their pockets full of Christmas spending money literally on their doorsteps really should consider a change of profession. I wish Nicole Rahimi every success in attempting to stage a Broad Street Christmas market in 2013.
Chris Brewer, Headington