In your letter of the week last week, Mr Smith labelled those seeking to tackle the horrendous problems of traffic congestion and air pollution in Devizes as “eco-terrorists”. His ground for doing so seems to be an emotional attachment to the ‘car is king’ philosophy which got us into this mess in the first place. For years we concreted over the countryside, demolished perfectly good houses to make wider roads and built by-passes that became congested, whilst doing nothing to reduce traffic in the towns they were built to protect.

Now we are forging a different path. We are encouraging people to get out of their cars and walk or cycle. We want to reclaim the centre of Devizes for people.

It is important to point out that some of the claims he makes are ill-founded. Firstly, contrary to his assertion that the cycle path now being constructed across the Green goes from nowhere to nowhere, it will be an integral part of a new cycle network designed to allow cyclists to access the town centre, Devizes School and the leisure centre whilst avoiding main roads and gyratory systems.

Secondly, the statement that vehicles can seldom exceed 20mph along Long Street is without foundation. For large parts of the day speeds in excess of 30mph are possible. Why are we pushing to reduce the speed limit? According to RoSPA 40 per cent of all road deaths occur with vehicles travelling between 20 and 30mph: only five per cent occur with vehicles travelling below 20mph. Incidentally, the additional time it will take a car to travel between Southgate to Northgate roundabouts at 20 rather than 30 mph is less than a minute.

So, if pursuing a policy of reducing congestion, ensuring that the air we breathe is clean and making our roads safer makes me an eco-terrorist, I will wear that badge with pride.

Tony Sedgwick, Newman Road, Devizes.