We need better roads (From Salisbury Journal)
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We need better roads
12:40pm Wednesday 2nd January 2013 in Letters
BILL Moss’ letter (Postbag, December 27) brought back memories of missed chances, not just for Salisbury, but the whole area surrounding it.
It’s ironic that we live in an area in which since medieval times, and possibly before, travellers have paid their calls to both Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral, pictured, as they have passed through on their journeys.
No Wiltshire icons other than Avebury, just off the A4, have been talked more about than these.
But in Warminster, Melksham, Devizes, Chippenham and Swindon, considerably more effort by Wiltshire Council and the Highways Agency has been made to make the life of the motorist more pleasant. I do not think that any of these towns, with the exception of Swindon, has a larger traffic flow than Amesbury’s A303 or Salisbury’s inner ring roads, where traffic at peak times makes life very slow even in the fast lane.
Just getting out of Tesco in Salisbury is testing to say the least.
The new and I hesitate to say it ‘upgraded’ Countess Roundabout on the A303 is an improvement, but if the east or westbound traffic is at its midweek pace, come the holiday break times and most weekends, even in flood weather or snow, the junctions are still blocked on the A345 if you travel north or south, with a barricade of vehicles.
And daring to break through the traffic to the waiting Island and bottleneck entrance on the other side brings breakneck speeds from other users who overtake you.
Why is it that whenever Wiltshire Council and the Highways Agency plan anything in south Wiltshire, we get the short end of the stick when we need the best?
JOHN WIGGLESWORTH, Durrington
