Reversing

I AM writing to express my utter disgust at the way some drivers behave along the Lower Burlington Road stretch of road in Portishead.

I recently retired here and bought a house off the Marina. How lovely I thought. Well it is until you want to go out in the car!

On an almost daily basis I am sworn at, have rude signals made at me or am given filthy looks

Why does this happen you ask? It’s those people who are incapable, of reversing so that two cars can pass along a stretch of Lower Burlington Road. Another friend parked on the road by the lock gates where there are no parking restrictions and returned to the car to find a note asking him to move his car six yards back in future so that they can see the boats. Oh, that was at 7pm and the tide was out.

ANN FOXWELL

Eastcliff, Porishead

Traffic lights

CABSTAND ‘Take Two’: Now the contractors have finally put traffic lights around the Portbury Lane/M5 junction and the Easton in Gordano to Bristol access road, we know what to expect when they are functional, a repeat of what happened at the ‘Cabstand’, total chaos.

The queues that have formed in all directions by the use of three sets of temporary lights by the contractors are an indication of what to expect, and significantly the lights have only been operating off peak. So when all six sets of permanent lights get to work, expect the worse.

I am astounded that our planners didn’t take a lesson from the lights installed at the Falfield/M5 junction and the Gloucester/M5 Junction, they caused huge tailbacks and are now turned off during peak periods to make the traffic flow, so I guess it won’t take too long for the same to happen at the Portbury/M5 junction.

Another waste of our local taxes, and that includes the new ‘lane’ that was put in to access the M5 going north from Portbury, try using it and you will suffer the wrath of the drivers who have waited patiently in the proper lane.

In Jersey they cope with high traffic volumes at similar junctions, in the summer they are very high, with simple signage telling drivers to give way alternately, and it works, woe betide any driver who ignores the discipline, the local police give no mercy!

I feel all that was required at the Portbury Lane exit was the introduction of a no right turn and with the addition of a filter lane to the left.

I suggested it during the so called consultation period, my suggestion for a trial was ignored.

It really is now a case of using a sledgehammer, and a very expensive one at that, to crack a nut. Comments please.

ANDY BLACKMAN

Old Priory Road, Easton-in-Gordano

Slashed

NORTH Somerset Council has slashed its spending on youth services, with 39 Conservative councillors voting for the cuts (surprise, surprise), whilst 15 Green, Labour, Liberal and Independents voted for an amendment to save them.

Provision for young people in North Somerset will go from being one of the best in the country under a Liberal-lead council to being virtually non-existent.

The accompanying levels of glee must be galling to young people: leader of North Somerset Council (NSC) Nigel Ashton boasts of its budget cuts as “a great achievement by our staff” in North Somerset Life (October 2011 issue), the council’s monthly self-promotional magazine published at a cost of more than �200K a year to local ratepayers. Conservative-lead NSC is certainly a trend-setter when it comes to slashing budgets – it was first in line nationally as a council to cut 100 per cent of its arts funding.

North Somerset Conservative councillors wholeheartedly toe the Government line in cutting youth services, against the recommendations of the police and youth offending services who know that this will lead to rising youth disaffection and crime. In the end, the people of North Somerset and the country as a whole will get what they vote for, or fail to vote against: an old school Tory-lead Central Government and local council that is gleefully dismantling our NHS and social provision for the most vulnerable and the young, and causing mass unemployment for under-25s.

Those who don’t like it - and particularly if they’re coming up for 18 - can use their vote at the next local and national elections to remove them from power.

RINA VERGANO

Bucklands Batch, Nailsea