WE live on the main road in Wroughton between the park and ride and the mini roundabout that users of the scheme will have to negotiate in order to access the site.
Imagine our dismay and disbelief when we read (March 21) that drivers from Swindon will have to pass our house TWICE in order just to get into the site.
Anyone who drives this route, will be more than aware of the positioning and design of the mini roundabout. We can tell you from experience, that it doesn't readily lend itself to be being driven around as, apart from being in a very confined area, it has an excessive camber.
Yet again, our village has been made the Cinderella of Swindon.
Swindon Road in Wroughton is already the main commercial route from Devizes, Chippenham and Melksham with the bulk of daily commuters from Devizes, Lyneham, West Swindon and the south of Swindon using our road as a shortcut to town.
We know of commuters from Devizes and other areas who drive to Wroughton, park in the Ellendune Centre and then use public transport into town, thus saving themselves the cost of daily parking.
Does this mean, they can now use the Park and Ride at the cost of £1.70 instead of clogging up our car parks?
The road surface outside our houses is constantly breaking up.
What do councillors think this additional traffic will do to an already deteriorating road?
Coun Milton, the council's cabinet member for transport of all things, claims she has only just learned of the problem. What do council officials do all day? They obviously don't communicate with each other.
Yes, you're right Ms Milton, motorists using the scheme shouldn't be coming from Swindon, but then who will be? With two hours parking in Swindon costing just over £1, who is going to pay £1.70 to travel by bus? We suspect the only people using this site will be the employees from Nationwide's headquarters in Pipers Way. Will they use this site as an overspill car park?
Maybe if the councillors and council officers responsible for these harebrained and waste of taxpayers' money schemes extricated themselves from their offices and consulted with the people who they so say represent, they could have saved themselves a lot of time, money and, I suspect, a great deal of embarrassment when it all goes pear-shaped.
HELEN CAPEL and COLIN SCULL
Wroughton
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