M25 DELAY DUE TO DEMOCRACY
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AS ONE whose transport
responsibilities do not extend beyond the byways of Dorset 1 have not lived with the frustrations evident in your Editorial (CM, October 5) concerning the delayed opening of the M25. However, the criticisms you voice do appear to be a little over the top.
Your contention that it is the "wrong product" appears to he based on the fact that it will not he capable of carrying its full design load for a few months. Your doubts about the design may well be proved correct, but surely it is a little early to judge.
Your comment about the delay in constructing major highways expresses the planner's dream of national infrastructure being provided within which all subsequent developments would take place.
At least the road planners had the foresight to protect the preferred line of many proposed motorways many years ago. Perhaps some of these you claim to have a legitimate cause to protest had bought nearby properties in the hope that the delays would be indefinite. No doubt some of the blame for the delays is rightly levelled at the politicians hut from my days working in a Road Construction Unit the major delays were caused by the seemingly endless democratic procedures, particularly with regard to land acquisition, rather than political or financial considerations.
I will now return to worrying about the problem of overhanging branches in the leafy Dorset lanes and try to resist in future this unhealthy desire to side with politicians and bureaucrats.
E. R. HORNIBLOW
Bridport Dorset