Flyover solution for roads
With the unveiling of the proposed road charging plans for the Midlands, I feel no one has addressed the real cause of the problem, which is mass immigration into this small island of ours.
According to official figures the sustainable population of this country should be 20 to 30 million – we have twice that number.
I believe businesses and commerce should be doing more by the use of electronic conference facilities, so that more people could work from home, thus reducing the number of cars on the road. It would also cut companies' costs as delegates would not have to stay in expensive hotels.
Let us also hope more transport companies will follow Eddie Stobart's example by putting goods back on the railway – remember, lorries occupy
a far larger space on the road than cars do.
Is it not obvious to the various councils around the Midlands that should these proposals take place, most of the towns and cities taking part (irrespective of how many costly redevelopments have taken place in their centres) will become ghost towns as motorists drive further to shop in order to avoid these charges.
With the figure of two billion pounds being bandied about to set up the system and a further two billion for its running costs, would not this amount be better spent on improving the present road system to cope with the increase in traffic?
Could not some of this money be earmarked for a series of underpasses or flyovers (like those in Birmingham) at all the major junctions around the Wolverhampton ring road, so that the ring road itself would be free of traffic lights? Traffic would then be constantly on the move. Motorists going in and out of the city would then join or leave the ring road by means of slip roads.
I do hope that someone will challenge the legality of these proposals to our freedom of movement at the Court of Human Rights at The Hague. Surely to curb our right to freedom of movement around this country must be an infringement!
Finally, what about the 11 million-plus pensioners who, after working all their life, can just about afford to run a car, so they can visit relatives, friends etc, or go shopping but, due to various health problems, cannot use public transport? Are they to be denied their independence, too?
Alan Rose, Denmead Drive, Wednesfield.
