YOUR critics are not alone in condemning the recent road works that have left Okehampton's streets looking like a first world war battlefield.
The project of installing traffic lights at the Mill Road junction with the consequent effect of halting traffic in East Street (the B3260) many will regard as a blunder, second only to the surprise development of a spectacle equally bizarre — a newly laid pavement jutting into East Street at the entrance to Crediton Road, seen by most people as a traffic hazard and a waste of resources and manpower.
The so-called improvement in Mill Road, will force travellers entering or leaving Okehampton into coping with seven sets of traffic lights and two pedestrian crossings all within a space of half a mile, hardly a stroke of genius to smooth away traffic jams.
I assume the scheme is part of the overall plan to deal with the abnormal concentrations of traffic expected next March. If so, I trust the authorities have a few brighter ideas in their locker than this dodgy expedient.
I work so hard to be positive and helpful but all I see is a town overtaken by Time and ill-prepared to tackle the legacy left by the reform of local government 25 years ago.
It cost small towns like Okehampton the local visionaries responsible for much of their success and condemned them to an uncertain future. Much has been done by business and other dedicated groups to bring the town back to life which must be acknowledged but somewhere, somehow, along the way it has lost momentum and prestige, qualities Waitrose could restore.
Waitrose is the turning point. Parking without fuss and tension is the key. Planners must get it right first time.
Jack Hellier Castle Road, Okehampton