Sir.-I see from last Friday's Gazette that three roads in Old Basing have been selected for "gateway" features.

This will come as a surprise to the residents of Park Lane and Byfleet Avenue, and possibly Hatch Lane, as they have not been consulted on this decision.

The stated purpose of the features is to advise motorists of the speed limit and to improve safety.

This is strange as I understand there have been no accidents in Park Lane and Byfleet Avenue in living memory and the borough council's own traffic survey shows no significant level of speeding on those roads.

Nor, for that matter, does the survey show large amounts of traffic on either of the roads.

I believe the exercise is therefore a waste of public money.

Still more extraordinary is that these gateway features will carry the slogan "Welcome to Old Basing", but they are sited well inside the parish boundary.

These sites are not the gateways to the parish, the built-up area of Old Basing village nor even to the old village centre.

By the erection of these signs, the large number of residents along London Road, in Dickens Lane, on the Green Acres estate and on the Basingfields estate, will all be arbitrarily excluded from Old Basing.

But there is one benefit. If we are no longer part of Old Basing, we can ask the borough to refund the Old Basing village precept as we no longer benefit from the activities of the parish.

-George Hulme, London Road, Old Basing.