HAVING just read the Melanie Vass report on Bournemouth road improvements I wonder where – like the council – she is coming from?

I travelled along Castle Lane recently and could not believe that I was made to travel with two wheels on the road and two on the new cycle path.

I realise these roadworks are not finished yet, but what sort of system we are going to end up with? (Note: there has already been accidents in the improved area).

Then when I travelled down Richmond Hill, I thought what a total shambles this is.

Just before I turned into St Stephen’s Road I nearly got the front hit off my car because the new kerbstone comes out so far.

All this was after I had passed cars parked in the new cycle lane and in between the no parking cones, whilst also trying to avoid the potholes on the new raised road outside the Nationwide building which nearly took the bottom of my car off.

I have on numerous occasions spoken to the lady in charge of this project, but my suggestion of a ‘pedestrian crossing with traffic lights’, which would have been much cheaper and solved the problem of speeding cars and would also have been much quicker to administrate was ignored.

If that had been done then perhaps the rest of the money could have been better spent on solving what really is a major problem and that is the number of accidents at Blackwater Junction, which I might add seems to be continually ignored.

I am told that there were a lot of accidents on Richmond Hill and something had to be done.

After research I found in fact it was 10 accidents in 11 years which compared to Blackwater Junction is pretty minimal.

I expect there is close to at least 10 a month.

At the end of the day the majority of road users are motorists and not cyclists, and no matter what the council does, it will always be that way so why is the council funding being wasted on the minority?

Also there are a lot of elderly people who cannot cycle, but can still drive a car.

RICHARD BENNETT, Meadowside Drive, Whitchurch, Bristol