Sir, The Road Users’ Alliance (report, “Broken promises leave dozens of towns in queue for a bypass”, Sept 11) comprises 22 members, of whom several are aggregate and bitumen suppliers, highway equipment manufacturers and assorted fellow travellers.
Their desire to concrete the countryside and swell their own coffers is perfectly understandable.
CHRIS WOODFORD
Swanage, Dorset
Sir, The Government’s own report on the infamous “flagship” Newbury bypass notes that, ten years after it was built, Newbury traffic has increased by 50 per cent and rush-hour congestion is 25 per cent worse.
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Unimaginative new road schemes now enjoy cost overruns of 45 per cent. Road traffic produces a fifth of our climate-changing CO2 emissions and is rising. Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, has stated that “there is no serious scientific doubt that climate change is real . . . We need to give more people a real alternative to taking their car”.
CHRIS STEVENSON
Leighton Buzzard, Beds
Sir, Although one has every sympathy for the residents of Marcham who suffer lorries grinding through their village, they would do far better to lobby Oxfordshire County Council to ditch the unaffordable bypass and divert lorries on to the trunk road network. There is no reason for lorries to rat-run through villages, and several local authorities have successfully trialled lorry bans.
Instead of moaning for a bypass for decades why not implement a low-cost solution now? Rather than delivering relief, bypasses often suck more traffic into an area. We must move on from failed 1980s-style roadbuilding and reduce and manage traffic growth.
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REBECCA LUSH
London EC1
Sir, Where can you go now in England and not hear a road? As a result of my home village in Berkshire being ruined in my childhood by the construction of the M4, I have remained a non-driver. This means that I have been effectively discriminated against in thousands of planning decisions for 40 years. Recently I moved to a place from which I can walk to work, but I find myself fighting another road proposal nearby.
TIMOTHY CLARK
Durham