Only a benevolent dictator can save Oxford

Only a dictator can save Oxford now. Local government simply cannot grasp how precious this marvellous, unrivalled city is, and how easy it will be to erode it into bare, dispiriting bleakness and ugliness. Any fool can see that the ancient colleges of the university must be preserved, but the setting in which they stand has no reliable defenders. It is true that a plan to put a bypass through the ancient pastures of Christ Church meadow was defeated in 1968. But that was after 27 years of wrangling, during which this hideous megalo-maniac scheme was actually described as ‘indispensable’.

In the half century during which I have lived in Oxford, with a few breaks, the nibbling of developers and expanders has continued without cease. Harold Macmillan famously allowed the destruction of the stately old Clarendon hotel in Cornmarket when he was housing minister in the early 1950s. It was replaced by a gigantic Woolworths, now defunct.