TEN days ago, we were applauding Worcestershire County Council's bold foresight in making some big plans for the city's transport needs.

A new bridge over the River Severn in Worcester, congestion charges and a northern bypass were among the radical proposals put forward to ease the daily traffic nightmare faced by commuters and residents.

Now, all those bold plans must surely be placed firmly on the back burner.

The Government has turned down County Hall's bid for funding for much-needed improvements to the county's existing road system.

Worcester's southern link road has, since it was built in the mid-1980s, been a source of relief - and frustration.

Relief because of the horrendous traffic gridlock that used to clog the city every day before the road was built.

Frustration because of the woeful inadequacies of the road itself.

Twenty years ago, planners should have had the foresight to realise that the road needed to be a dual carriageway.

The increase in the volume of traffic in the intervening years means drivers now face daily gridlock.

The county council's plans to improve the roundabouts at The Ketch and Powick would not, of course, have solved these traffic problems.

But they would, we believe, have made both those junctions safer places for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

Worcester MP Mike Foster may well be right when he says the plans were perhaps not properly thought through.

But surely any efforts to make "the number one accident spot in Worcestershire" a safer place, should be welcomed?