Charging will bring benefits

Some of your correspondents have misunderstood the purpose and operation of a proposed congestion charge in Shrewsbury. A congestion charge should be only one of several measures to improve access to, but discourage traffic from, the town centre.

Workers, residents, shoppers and tourists will all benefit from a safer, cleaner, more attractive town centre.

Shops, cafes and entertainment centres benefit from people coming to the town centre, either by public transport or parking on the periphery and then walking through the centre.

A frequent, circulating vehicle should assist those who find walking difficult.

The best route for drivers from Harlescott to the hospital or from Coleham to Mountfields is not through the town centre.

Neither High Street nor Town Walls are suitable for the volume of traffic currently using them.

Inner and outer bypasses exist for all cross-town traffic except for the north-west route. Even without the contentious North West Relief Road, it is more environmentally friendly and often quicker for traffic from the west to reach Harlescott via the outer bypass than to struggle into and through the town centre.

Some of us have been waiting years for these reforms, watching the inexorable growth in traffic and the patchy, often ill-conceived schemes to tackle it.

Now at last there seems to be some desire in high places for a radical transformation, which will enhance and protect our lovely town.

Andrew Bannerman, Shrewsbury