THE Highways Department display at St Anne's before Christmas included a list of advantages and disadvantages for the various traffic-calming proposals.

Ugliness did not feature as a disadvantage.

Presumably as part of the safe road plan, a speed-monitoring device has just been installed on Park Lane.

It is exactly outside a house which is the subject of building work.

During the day traffic must slow to a crawl to negotiate a parked van, so the results will be next to useless.

Only three times have I seen a pedestrian waiting at the new zebra crossing near Catchem's End.

On two of these occasions I was following other cars.

The drivers were so preoccupied in assessing their speed relative to the car in front, making sure they were in the right gear, judging the ramps, assimilating the array of colours and shapes, that they didn't notice the waiting pedestrian. A triumph of planning over practicality.

I can't help thinking that the safe roads plan is grant-driven rather than need-driven.

TONY HUGHES

Snuff Mill Walk

Bewdley