THE recent story about Richmond Hill seating only serves to illustrate how our councils have mis-spent the “Three Towns Travel” money.

The £12m equates to £91 per head for our conurbation – this level of investment is enough to bring about serious change and could have significantly affected people’s ability to travel sustainably and safely.

Instead, most of it has been spent on landscaping.

Apart from the ridiculously over-engineered Castle Lane works and some minor improvements on Christchurch Road, all I can see of this money is rebuilding of areas such as Ashley Road, Travel Interchange, Horseshoe Common, Boscombe and Richmond Hill.

Whilst I don’t disagree with scenic improvements, this money was primarily intended to change the way we travel and reduce dependence on cars.

I fail to see how these works will have any impact on sustainable travel across the conurbation.

Ask yourself, have you noticed any change in the way you travel? Do you feel it’s any safer to allow children to cycle on our roads?

MIKE CHALKLEY

Cowper Road, Bournemouth