I am sure a collective sigh of relief arose among your Devizes readers when the news spread that the London Road works by Wessex Water were finished, and traffic was flowing normally again.

Not being a cynical person, it never occurred to me that Wessex Water had cunningly overestimated the works at ten weeks to get the credit for superhumanly finishing early, although some have leapt to this conclusion. We should not look the gift horse in the mouth.

That being said, the congestion arising from the roadworks was a major problem for Devizes. Commercial traffic was severely disrupted, public transport was running up to an hour late, and retail trade in the town was cut significantly.

These effects were predictable and the Guardians took steps to establish contact with Wessex Water's project management well in advance, to improve the sequencing of the work and the handling of the traffic management. In the event, this combination of politeness and pressure paid off, to everyone's benefit. We would like to thank all those who reported working times at the site and public transport delays to us, so that we could advise Wessex Water.

Meanwhile the Devizes/Salisbury road works are still in place. But here, the County Council has, cleverly, closed the road completely, thus minimising the public scrutiny of their work whilst maximising the inconvenience to the travelling public.

Let us hope that they have similarly overestimated the timescale and that work will finish ahead of schedule and re-establish the Stonehenge/Devizes/Avebury tourist triangle.

J Ody

Kennet District Councillor

Devizes South