THERE have been many casualties in the major road works that continue to impact on residents and visitors to Wilton.

The angry motorists who have to turn back because they can’t go through the town centre.

So what happens?

Traffic comes through thick and fast along Burcombe Lane into Burcombe and then right onto the A30.

After the fiasco of seeing buses and heavy lorries narrowly avoid each other in what is usually a lovely country lane, you stop for cars travelling far too fast only to be met with looks of contempt because you have slowed down their journey. And anyway they are in a hurry for that ever important appointment.

There was a show on the London stage in the 1960s entitled Stop the World, I Want to Get Off! Life has moved on a great deal since then and we now live in the era of confrontational local politics and alternative lifestyles. But I am left wondering why should inconvenienced traffic spoil my town, and my beautiful countryside?

I wrote in this column some months ago about the joy of cycling in the Chalke Valley and surrounding areas. The scenery is unrivalled, and you don’t have to clog up the A303 to go to Devon and Cornwall when we have what is unrivalled in Wiltshire.

We returned from a month’s holiday Down Under in March on a bright but cold winter’s morning. We had suffered a 30-hour journey flying from Sydney to Heathrow. We turned off the A303 at the Stonehenge roundabout and were just struck by the immeasurable beauty of the rolling hills and countryside as we made our way to Wilton.

We have become such slaves to speed and noise that we find it hard to stop and reflect on what we have and on how lucky we are to have it. So cycling shows me how beautiful are the hills and valleys that are Wiltshire at its best.

You can’t totally escape the daily world we inhabit, as lorries on the busy A roads are never sure what to do when they confront cyclists. But on cycling journeys I meet people who want to stop and talk and share their joy of living in the countryside.

The psalmist in the Old Testament exhorts us “Be still-have we forgotten or ever known what that means?-and know God.”

Chris Savage