Letter: Support for bypass is road to nowhere

Sir: In his support for the massively damaging proposed Newbury bypass (letter, 30 September), David Rendel has missed the point. Taking four miles of traffic congestion and dumping it across nine miles of unspoilt countryside will not solve Newbury's problems. Projected figures confirm that existing levels of in-town congestion will recur in about five years.

Mr Rendel's letter is also misleading in that Newbury already has a through route, a four-lane bypass built 20 years ago, to the east of this 'much loved market town'. His support for a road that, in his words, will do 'considerable environmental damage' is alientating the very people who voted him into power. And his failure to realise that the tide of public opinion is turning in favour of conservation and traffic management will prove to be both environmentally and politically disastrous.

Yours sincerely,

J. EISELE

Boxbury, Newbury

30 September