Sir.-I would like to express my deep concern on the proposed "solution" being offered for Brighton Hill Roundabout.
After more than four years of talking about schemes, at last we have a proposal which, frankly, I feel is inadequate and half-baked.
The scheme does nothing to address the dangerously high speeds attained on the roundabout.
Traffic exiting at Winchester Road often does so at speeds exceeding 40mph.
A recent Gazette article featured a resident, who lives off Winchester Road, Basingstoke and has suffered two high-speed accidents while trying to access his drive.
These proposals will do nothing for him and, indeed, I have grave concerns that a 40mph side impact on a car exiting a driveway on that road could prove fatal.
The scheme also does nothing for cars exiting Harrow Way or Brighton Way, having to cope with two streams of traffic doing 35mph up the hill, with no reliable indication if they are turning off or carrying on to the next exit.
Traffic often has to wait up to half-an-hour at peak periods to join the roundabout at these junctions, and drivers run the risk of a fatal side impact if they get it wrong pulling out.
Are we really saying it is acceptable to do nothing about this?
The scheme penalises drivers from South Ham trying to access the M3 at junction seven. They are now faced with a detour along Buckland Avenue.
The scheme penalises elderly residents in Buckland Avenue, faced with the prospect of increased traffic rat-running to the roundabout, using a road which these residents have to cross in order to access their local shops and doctor's surgery.
In short, the scheme falls far short of what is required.
An examination of the roundabout reveals a painful history. A better scheme was proposed two years ago but was axed when Hampshire County Council withdrew BEST funding, prefering instead to spend it on a bus priority scheme on the A3 in Havant.
Now, two years later, costs have escalated by nearly 300 per cent, and all of a sudden we are confronted with a half-baked scheme put in as a sop to residents and as a desperate attempt to save funding from Homebase, which is due to be clawed back in 2006.
But the problems still remain - if anything they have got worse - and I fail to see how highways engineers can have such a radically-different appraisal of what is required now to what they proposed two years ago, ie traffic signals. You don't need them on all the exits - just three will do.
Had the problems been sorted two years ago, cost would not have been an issue. The problems still need a decent solution which improves flow and increases safety by reducing speed.
Borough council leader Brian Gurden and county councillor Phil Heath have both spoken in favour of this scheme. Is this the best they can come up with after more than four years of trying?
-Cllr Andrew McCormick, Basingstoke.
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