Sir – I read with dismay Roger Ball’s request (Letters, January 6) for the River Windrush and its tributaries to be “cleaned out, reeds cut back and banks cleared”.

It is so alarming to hear these calls for a return to the days of state-sponsored environmental vandalism, when our rivers were treated as mere drains for the rapid conveyance of rainwater from land to sea.

And of course the people who live downstream of Witney would suffer more severe flooding if Mr Ball had his way.

I would prefer my children to inherit a landscape fashioned by more enlightened attitudes.

Richard Dean
Woodgreen
Witney