West End of Oxford

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 28th Jun 2005

Letter to Oxford Times

You report (Oxford Times, June 24) the disagreement between the City and County Councils about the possibility of turning Worcester Street carpark into a canal basin. Labour City Councillors who had supported a feasibility study in April now oppose it, but Conservatives on the County Council and Liberal Democrats on both councils still support this feasibility study.

But you do not give publicity to the fact that both Councils supported the rest of a motion from the Liberal Democrats listing the traffic measures which would be necessary if there is to be development at Westgate and in the rest of the West End (up to the railway line). There remain real uncertainties about the West End. Will the Railway Station move south? Will the College move into better buildings on a smaller site? Both Councils accept that there are real traffic problems to be solved if redevelopment is not to lead to gridlock. We are not pushing ahead regardless of these problems.

Cllr Dermot Roaf

Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Oxfordshire County Council