Letter: Smithfield Road changes were whose idea?

Letter: I wonder if I may ask your motoring correspondent if he would inquire of Shropshire Council's head of the highway department to publish his reasoning for the stoppage of the centre lane in Smithfield Road, Shrewsbury, caused by the erection of a new traffic island.

Making all the centre lane traffic turn right across oncoming traffic and routing it via the very busy bus station and multi-storey car-park exits will surely add to an already hazardous area crowded with pedestrian shoppers?

Furthermore, the increased traffic volumes waiting at the traffic lights to return to the centre lane in Smithfield Road will result in ever-more delays to the buses by blocking the exit from the bus station.

Shrewsbury drivers are not daft.

I travel almost daily along the inner lane of Smithfield Road and, during the experimental blockage of the centre lane, I was repeatedly cut in front of by the drivers in the centre lane who already knew that their way was blocked by the bollards.

These drivers then swung out again after the bollards.

Is it the intention of the highways department to make this permanent ?

The number of Frankwell pedestrians on the river-side of Smithfield Road who might wish to cross at the site of the new traffic island is minimal as the vast majority use the pedestrian-controlled lights to cross over much more safely; even though the sequencing of the traffic lights for motorists there is an abomination.

I am sure that all your readers will be interested in the highway department's reply, which I hope, will include the details of past annual highway budgets and the spend already this year at this time of financial restraint.

J A F Fitton

Shrewsbury