Sirs - Weary travellers and commuters from all over this and adjoining counties know that in Worcester we suffer from a medieval road system frequently gridlocked and increasingly overstretched, which on a daily basis causes distress and frustration to very many thousands of private, commercial and business drivers and passengers.

Simply from a health damage point of view the heightened pollution and stress levels must register significantly, but from a business viewpoint the millions of man hours lost are an enormous financial negative to local and county businesses.

Unless the City road system problem is addressed properly, together with a Northern Severn bridge and completion of the Ring Road, there is little doubt that future opportunity for growth, new business, and tourism will be radically restricted.

The recently much publicised £12 million Skywalk project to build a very pretty one kilometre long footbridge ignores all the above, and apart from being the answer to muggers prayers, will benefit relatively few people. If the London based body of 'experts' at Zeta Economics believe the footbridge 'could' benefit the City by £55 million in 5 years and

£217 million at some time in the future, then I think we can also believe that a completed ring road with a third road bridge 'could'

benefit the City by £937 million in 5 years and upwards of 3.7 trillion in the future.

One additional point - if Skywalk were built, there would be 5 bridges over the Severn in Worcester traversable by pedestrians, only 2 of which can be used by vehicles. Surely it's time to get our priorities right and to tell all our representatives and local MPs throughout the County to move heaven and earth to get the central funding to complete the Worcester Ring Road and the Northern bridge as soon as possible?

Otherwise perhaps someone will stand locally as a prospective MP on a 'Complete the Ring Road' ticket - they might get a lot of votes!

Patrick Mills

Leigh