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  • "The way that some of you carry on you would think that the Southampton Road is the only point where traffic is a problem in Salisbury!

    Have you ever tried to go towards old sarum at around 5pm on a week day or mid-morning to mid afternoon on a Saturday?

    Have you never been sat in the traffic heading towards the London Road on the ring road from either of the two directions approaching the St Marks Round about?

    Have you not queued from Exeter Street Roundabout all the way up to the Harnham Junction?

    Every main road that links to the ring road at some point during the day, evening or weekend becomes snarled up with traffic.

    Why?

    Because Salisbury doesn't have a single way out of the city that is by dual carriage way. We have a road system and city that was not designed for the amount of traffic on the road. Its simple really.

    How can we fix the problem? Well we can't - we will have to make do and suffer until we pick Salisbury up - move it away from its historic buildings, rolling landscapes and plonk it next to a major motor way! Oh but then we would lose what we all love about it so much!

    As for the water meadows - so removing a small part of a water meadow that stretches from beyond Bodenham downstream all the way up to the city is going to make a huge difference is it? Where is the research that proves this? As I thought there isn't any!

    The wildlife that is so happy in the Wessex Water facility at petersfinger will also be so badly destroyed. As for your otters - they tend to live in river banks - the main river bank that you are talking about is a good 400 meters away from the proposed site and the smaller part of the river, will be part of the nature reserve!

    Do I think the location of the new supermarket is the best place to put it? NO - but not for the superficial reasons that most are complaining about!"
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Now is the time to object to store plans

10:20am Thursday 19th July 2012 in Salisbury Letters

GOOD people of Salisbury, here is the opportunity for many years of complaining and queuing. The gridlock caused by the Southampton Road will increase greatly, and those living in the Close, Britford and Downton might even have the chance of serious flooding misery. Don’t miss out… we could enjoy this situation for years and years ahead. All we have to do is nothing.

In the short term, many of us may be quite happy to have a bigger Sainsburys, who really cares where they put it?

Did you say Southampton Road? The one road which causes everything to gridlock?

Salisbury’s biggest sticking point? Directly opposite the existing Tesco? On our ancient water meadow system which, precariously, still ensures that the Cathedral Close and Britford do not flood? Has everyone taken leave of their senses?

A recent meeting set up to explain things to local residents was attended by four people.

When asked, other residents said it had struck them as so ridiculous that they could not imagine it would be allowed.

Cunning, eh?

And if the concept itself is ridiculous; the placebos, sops and excuses for are really hilarious. Hands up those of us who believe that widening one of the lanes for a short stretch and moving the roundabout will improve traffic flow when that flow is doubled? No? Well what about the provision of a dedicated bus lane? Surely that will help – perhaps as it does on the Downton Road, where busy traffic now has to back up in a single lane, watching the lights change from green to red to green, and a completely empty lane to the side of them…in case a bus comes.

Our beautiful cathedral and medieval city centre are set against miles of unspoilt water meadows. They are home to otters, herons, water voles and all manner of lovely little plants and creatures which share our world. They are part of what make sSalisbury so beautiful – a city with a glorious setting. But the supermarket will build a nature reserve – oh please! The existing water meadows are the best nature reserve possible – building paths and ponds (on an area presumably now littered with building debris) can’t compete with nature.

These meadows are not just a thing of beauty, residents of areas adjoining the water meadows depend on their functioning as a flooding area in times of high rainfall such as this. The last time this was forgotten, the cathedral and Close, Britford and Downton nearly flooded. These systems are sensitive – leave them well alone. We have plenty of higher ground on which to build.

Good people of Salisbury, do something! You have no right to complain later if you do nothing now. Contact Andrew Guest, Wiltshire Council , PO Box 2281, Salisbury SP2 2HX, or email: developmentmanagementsouth @wiltshire.gov.uk .

ANNABEL K LAWSON, Britford

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