No need for shame over driving a car

A lot of people who live in Evesham do not actually work in the town and they, like my wife, need the car, and yes we are dependant on it. A dependency borne out of necessity.

My wife works at Ronkswood, and even with the best will in the world, no bus company is going to run a convenient bus service to get her to work for 7.30 am when she is on an early shift, or get her home at 9.30 pm when she works on a late. (Would Dr Martin like his wife walking around Worcester alone at that time of night?)

Does he not realise that the car, in an urban area, has ceased to be a luxury, but is a necessary part of modern life. I would agree that the use of public transport is in the decline, but no matter how hard one may try, a public transport system will be of no use whatsoever to a large majority of urban dwellers.

We need the car user to bring money into the town, from its residents, shoppers from the surrounding areas and the holiday makers, to keep it alive.

However, what we do not need is a county council which thinks that a solution to a traffic problem is to choke the town to death, both with traffic jams and pollution due to immobile vehicles, stretching from Greenhill all the way through to Pershore Road, by an ill-conceived plan, and ill-advised use of the rate payers money.

To cap it all, they do not even admit that they have got it wrong.

Their solution is having the effect of putting people off coming to the town. The county council listens to the public as much as our Prime Minister does!!

n Alan Scott, Abbot Chyryton's Place, Evesham, via e-mail.

Just how fast are we supposed to go?

A small matter in the sum total of the worlds problems but does any one know the speed limit on Station Road towards Evesham from Broadway village to the roundabout at the Broadway bypass?

I am confused and think that it is now 30 mph but as all the repeater signs for the old 40 mph limit seem to have disappeared along with their posts and have not been replaced with new limit signs it is difficult to know !

However, I am not alone in wondering what the speed limit is as I am frequently passed by vehicles doing at least 60MPH on this stretch.

Are they aware of something I have missed and have all speed limits now been removed ?

n John G Haig, Smallthorns Farm, Moreton in Marsh, via email

.... And is anyone checking the effect

IHAVE lived on the A44 for 18 years and watched the volume of traffic increase. However,since the introduction of the 40mph zone at Cropthorne, I find it increasingly difficult to join the main road from my drive which is just out side the zone.

This is due to the bunching effect caused by the 40mph and I have counted anything from 8 to 32 cars in a continuous line leaving the zone. The knock-on effect is that no one can over-take the slower vehicles. By the time this mass hits Evesham the problem is compounded. The peak time queues from Cheltenham Bridge used to end at Hampton Church.They now end between Hampton Vegetable Shop and Boston Lane.

The journey to Worcester used to take 25-30 minutes. Now it takes at least 45. I have never, in the thousands of times I have driven this route, seen small unattended children in the Cropthorne, Drakes Broughton or Stoulton areas. I presume that their parents, who have chosen to live by this road, have worked out that playing on the A44 would be dangerous and have taken the responsibility on themselves to keep them away.

It seems ridiculous that our main 'A' road into our county's capital city is effectively a 40 mph road.

Who decides these areas? Did they think of the ramifications of traffic bunching? Was it just a blanket policy that all roads with houses on should be 40mph? Does no one think about free flowing traffic? As a rural area surely we realize that cars are important or should we just accept the "2 Jags" opinion that all roads should be bus lanes?

n Liz Scott, Lower Haselor, Evesham via email.

But parking poses a village problem

I HAVE just read the report about the parking ban in Longborough and to say I am amazed would be putting it rather mildly - it is just beyond belief.

The proposed double yellow lines came about because of the dangerous traffic hazard over the years. Many accidents happened with cars, motor cycles and bicycles and because of this my father in 1925 ended his motorcycling days.

Why do you think that large stone was positioned at the corner of the building which was named Smith Shop then Hornes Shop and now a private house? It was not a buttress but to ease any vehicles round the building instead of head first into the said shop corner.

All this was done with safety in mind 80 years ago but life has moved on; with high speed of today the good people of Longborough came to this conclusion after much discussion and with the result of the village survey 71% in favour with only 29% against. When the proposition was put to the council the elected councillors used their vote in favour in the knowledge that, together with their own views, it had to be a good move for the village to save a possible serious accident.

Rumour has it there was a very good reason for the withdrawal of the land for the proposed car park owing to remarks made by selfish people who do not wish to go those few extra yards where their cars would be safe and therefore remove this very serious hazard. Some village folk do not seem to get their priorities right- even in an old village like Longborough you have to move in the direction which best for all in the 21st century.

Now I come back to the vote to lay down double yellow lines - that minute is still valid and the wish of the good folk of the village must be implemented. The fact that the main users of this section of the highway to the exclusion of any other person, who bought a house without a car space or garage is not the prime concern of the village.

As I see it the situation for the parish council has not changed. They only have to press the county council for an early date to lay down the yellow lines and to keep pressure on.

When it was proposed that the county councillor should be invited to attend our parish council some 25 years ago it was to offer help and to assist. I can never remember the three previous county councillors taking sides or being persuaded by others in what was a domestic problem after a valid survey by the whole village had been taken.

n CHARLES HENRY (HARRY) WILLIAMS, Swan Close, Moreton.

Retired chairman of Longborough Parish Council and retired chairman of Longborough Relief in Need Charity - after 41 years service to the Longborough community.

Problems which come first here

I MUST reply to the letter from K Marshall, accusing me of making excuses for the lack of response by the people of Evesham to the charges of homophobia and racism. I was making excuses for no one, rather I was trying to put across the point that there is no problem in the first place. I know it galls members of the politically correct brigade when other people do not share their ability to see the world the way that they do, but believe me we are all too aware of the problems in society. Of course local folk show more interest in the re-location of the Post Office and the potential loss of the Regal cinema - these problems do exist, and therefore these issues do exercise peoples' concern.

Ron Payne, Lynwood Close, Hampton, Evesham.