THIS week we have seen that the Highways Department (whom I presume are the ones we must blame for the weird traffic schemes inflicted upon us) has caused disruption in Abbey Rise, Tavistock, tampering with their previous brainchild, but improving nothing.

It is now about three years since they introduced the changes to the road system in the town centre. In those three years we have now bred aggressive pedestrians! These are the people who launch themselves into the road, without looking, on the cobbled crossings.

These areas are not official pedestrian crossings, merely recommended places to cross the road. Soon someone will be injured or at worst killed.

Many of these cobbled crossings are on the exits of the misplaced mini-roundabouts. A motorist exiting a roundabout often has to make a sudden halt due to blinkered pedestrians stepping off the pavement. This causes the following vehicles to stop, blocking the roundabout. And these are recommended crossing places, in many cases within 20 yards of a proper signed crossing.

Somewhere, the man or woman who designed all these obstacles must exist. Come out from behind the curtain of local authority and admit who you are. I'd love to walk round town with you and show you where the problems lie.

If the authorities have the funds to do what they've just done in Abbey Rise, there must be funds to improve the rest of the problems?

Chris Dicker

14 Watts Road

Tavistock

PS: Does anybody turning right from Drake Road into West Street ever go round the mini- roundabout?