2nd April 2008
IT is sad to see that after seven years, there are stil people like Mary Lewis (letters, March 19) who are under the misapprehension that the proposed road scheme for Priory Crescnet will do anything to help those living or working in the east of the borough.
The council's aim with the original scheme was to dual the one 800m stretch of single carriageway between London and Shoebury.
On paper, this sounds good until you realise that it's the amount of traffic streaming from Prince Avenue onto Victoria Avenue that causes the tailbacks on Priory Crescent. Comparatively little traffic goes from Victoria Avenue onto Manners Way and so the gaps in the flow of traffic from the right are few and far between.
It doesn't matter whether Cuckoo Corner is a roundabout or traffic lights or whether Priory Crescent has two lanes or ten - it doesn't change the fact that there is too much traffic using the junction.
Even the council's own evidence at the public inquiry showe that after 15 years the scheme would have reached capacity and they would have to look for an alternative. And that was before they decided they would only be able to build half of it!
The only way to solve the problem is to reduce the number of cars using Cuckoo Corner and that isn't something the council has shown any willingness to consider.
Denis Walker
East Street, Southend