12:51pm Thursday 2nd October 2008
ALTHOUGH I am now living in the depths of Hampshire, I was born in Salisbury and spent my formative years in my beloved city.
I am very proud to be a "son of Sarum" and a Wiltshire man and return regularly for social and family reasons.
However, the letter from Alastair Lack in your September 18 edition must sum up the feelings of the vast majority of those who pay their taxes to Salisbury District Council and who must, frankly, be ashamed of the mess that Salisbury has become.
Why on earth Salisbury District Council has the urge to spend yet more money revamping the Market Square is simply beyond my comprehension.
How many times has it been re-invented in the last ten years?
Surely to goodness the money would be far better spent improving the scruffy, unkempt approaches to the city, all of which are complete eyesores.
Southampton Road, with its nonsensical "no-right-turn" idiocy imposed by some bureaucratic local government incompetent, beggars belief.
London Road, adjacent to Bishopdown Farm, is another explosion of seedy, weed-infested retail units about to unleash its mess and mire upon the unwary motorist stupid enough to visit Salisbury for the day.
What a first impression to what used to be a beautiful city.
Wilton Road, Devizes Road - oh dear, oh dear.
Visit Salisbury for the day? Forget it, there's nowhere to park.
And before the entire green brigade jump up and down to extol the virtues of park and ride, tell me this: why would any visitor want to park their car on the outskirts, travel on a bus into town, buy the huge amount of shopping that the good merchants of Sarum would love to unload on them and then struggle back on the same bus with umpteen bags?
We all want less pollution but the car is a fact of life and we must cater for it, like it or not.
So come on Salisbury District Council, get your priorities right.
Tidy up the approaches, make it easier and more pleasant to shop in and get rid of the stupid barrier on Southampton Road.
Don't waste all that lovely money.
What happened to good old common sense?
JOHN BARTON-RUMBOLD, Lymington
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