A CONSIDERABLE amount of taxpayer's money has been wasted at the Wick Lane/Potterne Road junction.

What was a perfectly adequate and safe arrangement of illuminated traffic island and sufficient road markings have been replaced by a ludicrously complex array of new floodlights, a pedestrian crossing with flashing lights and the road surface covered with a maze of white lines. And why on earth were the original kerbs and traffic island ripped out and replaced in virtually the same places as before? Could it be to conform to some new EU regulations?

A motorist approaching this new complex from Potterne has his attention first drawn to the pedestrian crossing to such an extent that he does not see that immediately beyond it is the new mini-roundabout. This series of concentric circles (invisible in wet weather) gives unexpectedly and, for the first time, right of way to Devizes-bound traffic, joining the main road from Wick Lane. Collisions are bound to take place before long as the direct result of this badly designed so called "improvement".

Small wonder the council tax is as high as it is.

DEREK PARKER

The Fairway

Devizes