AS residents of London Road, we are greatly concerned by the developments planned for London Road, ie ASDA and Lidl, due to the increased traffic flow they will bring, as London Road is already heavily congested during the day.

There has been a great deal off controversy lately about the proposed Sainsbury’s store on Southampton Road and we feel that London Road will become a carbon copy, with all its traffic problems, should these developments go ahead.

There is already a large volume of traffic on London Road, including at weekends, as this road is one of the main routes into Salisbury and is also a holiday route to the south coast from the north.

Further worrying points to consider are the narrowing or total disappearance of pavements along the majority of the length of London Road.

There are problems already with cyclists using this single pavement, which they see this as a safer option.

Returning to the problem of future traffic congestion, we can foresee further congestion subsequently leading to traffic finding alternative routes, resulting in a rat run through Ford and also Laverstock, which currently has four schools Despite there being a 30 limit from St Mark’s roundabout until Glenmore Road, there are ongoing problems with speeding vehicles approaching the railway bridges, which have a bend just after them and double white lines which are frequently crossed by traffic driving down from St Mark’s roundabout.

We also note that ASDA carried out a survey in the area near the proposed stores in which 71 per cent of 292 replies voted in favour of the store. This is out of the estimated Salisbury population of circa 40,000.

These are valid points for serious consideration and if these proposed plans are given the go ahead by Wiltshire Council, we believe that London Road will just become another Southampton Road, leaving Salisbury with yet another headache to try and deal with.

How many more ill thought out plans will Salisbury be expected to endure due to the many mistakes Wiltshire Council made in the past? In particular, the lack of a suitable outer by-pass that would have altered any further issues in and around Salisbury.

DA Simpson

Salisbury