I CERTAINLY agree with Brenda Trigg that drivers need to be more considerate as they use our ever busier roads.

However, I would like to correct the part of her letter about Bournemouth being one of the country’s most congested “cities”.

This “fake news” comes from a TomTom report of last year.

I am sure that if residents have travelled to some of the towns and cities rated as less congested than Bournemouth in the TomTom report, they would have found it as difficult as I did to recognise our town as suffering more than them from congestion.

In fact when looking at the hotspots identified on the map of the TomTom report, it is quite easy to see the reason. It is that not one of those hotspots is actually in Bournemouth! Rather they are locations such as Sandbanks, Christchurch Town Centre, Ashley Heath and Longham.

I am pleased to say that the Local Enterprise Partnership, where Bournemouth Council plays a very active part, is already looking to address many of these.

If one looks at the rather more objective and comprehensive DfT Congestion and Reliability Statistics, residents will be pleased to see that Bournemouth is actually coping rather well – with traffic moving, for example, 50% faster than in Bristol.

Cllr Mike Greene

Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainability, Bournemouth Borough Council

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