YEARS ago, while my fellow workers and I were leaning on our shovels in the blistering heat of the newly-laid M5 tarmac, we were all unanimous that the two lanes shimmering into the distance would not suffice for the amount of traffic that would soon be using it.

We were soon back in work widening it for the third lane. As with the new Worcester Hospital, the authorities are building for today and not tomorrow.

When this building is finally opened, it will barely cope with the demand. In 10 years time it will be as Ronkswood is today. I would not mind betting that Worcester will not have the sorely-needed road bridge for many years, but when it is eventually built, it will be too small, far too late, and plonked precisely where some prospective political candidate says it should be - smack in the wrong place!

Have you ever thought why the Ketch Bridge has only single lane each way traffic, as have the roads created specifically for it? Perhaps I can enlighten you. It is known as the British disease, or lack of forethought. Years ago, when the city river bridge was completed, the volume of traffic was nothing compared to today.

While even the planners of yesteryear could hardly have envisaged the amount of traffic their bridge would have to take, they did then what our planners, councillors, and prospective candidates cannot even conceive.

They used forethought and built a bridge capable of taking two lanes of traffic.

R W BROWN,

Malvern.