Traffic on route (From Gazette Series)

Traffic on route

I READ Mr Cordwell's reply in last week's Gazette with interest. As usual the reply skirts around the main issue raised and attempts to create a smokescreen.

I have no figures to quote to back up my intuition but I would surmise that at least 80 percent of the traffic that comes into Wotton from the Rushmire direction leaves on the Charfield road and vice-versa. I would say that the volume of traffic following this route is in the hundreds per day, if not thousands. If the council has an actual up-to-date set of figures it would be interesting to see them.

The main question still remains. When are the council going to do the duty required of them by the Highways Act 1980?

If the pot of money robbed by the Conservatives was meant for "combating the congestion problems", why was it still in the pot and not being used?

If the county council decided to exercise its power "to require that free passage along the highway is not wilfully obstructed in any way" (Highways Act, 1980, Section 137) by selectively putting double yellow lines down, instead of "all over the place", then why not? We live in a democratic society, where the wishes of the majority should prevail. The question is simple, should the majority who want the free passage along the highway be stopped by the minority who are wilfully obstructing it?

Since I believe that the route I have mentioned above is probably the major one, why not double yellow line it and see what happens to congestion in Wotton?

More off-road parking, both for temporary and permanent use, is desperately needed in the town. Are there any cohesive plans to do it?

With the various developments that are going on around Wotton the parking problem will only get worse.

Malcolm May Bearlands Wotton-under-Edge