HAVING endured a succession of 45+ minute trips on the A36 from Whiteparish to Petersfinger in recent weeks and seen hundreds of people sitting motionless on the ring road at all times of day, dare I ask if those responsible for Salisbury’s road system, presumably elected councillors and local government officials, have a secret strategy in place to overcome this increasing problem?

From the south some solutions seem obvious – scrap the barely used cycle lanes and widen Southampton Road, build a temporary flyover at Wiltshire College, move the park and ride out towards Alderbury and have a dedicated public transport to the centre at peak periods.

I confess I am not an expert in traffic systems and I may have overlooked glaring flaws in my proposals.

I fear, however, that the same applies to those in local government, particularly our councillors of all parties who possess neither the will or the strategic competence to come up with anything other than wanting to build more stores and housing in inappropriate places.

By the time hundreds more houses have been built over the next decade or so I fear the city will have choked itself to death.

It has already entered the Special Measures stage with inadequate recycling facilities, no transport hub (even Lymington and Romsey have bus stations), huge articulated lorries battling through to Churchfields and a poorly-conceived park and ride system, particularly at Petersfinger.

Is it too much to ask our elected local representatives to start a concerted campaign to sort all this out?

Like climate change, it will not go away.

HUGH BURNARD Whiteparish