I WISH to protest about what has been done to Burnley Road, Accrington, where we now have vast open spaces of empty cycle lanes, empty pedestrian island refuges, empty pedestrian kerb build-outs and empty white hatchings. Meanwhile, the main user, namely, motor traffic, is confined and congested into narrow chicaned lanes. Whoever thinks that this is progress or improvement is out of touch with reality.

Of all the people that I know, not one approves of this scheme. Everyone wants reckless speeding stopped, but the implementation of still more of these unpopular and discredited designs of road furniture and clutter is a travesty of common sense.

Bad drivers just ignore them or, worse, treat them as a challenge.

All the white-painted lines detract from visual amenity and the posts and bollards will soon be grimy, dented or damaged, giving an appearance of neglect and desolation to the neighbourhood as surely as if it were trashed by vandals. The Highway Code requires drivers to keep to the left and not monopolise the crown of a road. It also sets out the correct procedure for making a left turn. Neither of these rules can now be obeyed in Burnley Road because of the narrowed lanes and kerb build-outs at junctions.

The traffic flow is reduced to 10 or 15 miles per hour every time that a vehicle is making a safe left turn because there is no longer any facility to filter.

Despite a poorly-administered public consultation exercise and comprehensive representations made by a number of people, including myself, the unthinking bureaucratic machine has steamed ahead and degraded a perfectly good road.

This is a main trunk route which should support a smooth and efficient flow of traffic. There is not even a school or shopping area along its length to justify what has been done.

The local transport infrastructure has been damaged as savagely and certainly as if it had sustained a direct hit by enemy action in a war situation.

ROY CHETHAM, Sutton Crescent, Huncoat, Accrington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.