AS people who have lived in Eltham Drive, Kelso since mid-2012, we have followed with interest the debate about Hereford Street and access to the city centre for all of those nine years.
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We have seen over 550 new houses (we have counted them!) built so far in the Marsden Estate alone, with hundreds more to come, and not a dollar spent in improving the surrounding roads or access.
There is anecdotal evidence that developers have paid levies to assist with upgraded access as far back as almost 20 years ago.
We have to agree with Paul Toole MP (Western Advocate, January 14) that previous councils have neglected their duties in areas such as footpaths, upgraded access, and planning for ever-increasing numbers of cars on the local roads, and we can only hope that our new council will have a majority of voices with common sense and some interest in planning for the future, which may act in ways that might attract Mr Toole's approval and support as quickly as possible.
Most comments so far refer to Hereford Street as though it is the problem area, but what we see as residents who use Gilmour, Hereford and all the nearby streets every day, at all hours of the day, is that the real problem is the Trinity roundabout.
In the morning, leaving Marsden Estate to travel to town around 8.30am means a crawl from Eltham Drive to Trinity roundabout, then you can run quite nicely along Hereford Street until you reach the city.
In the afternoon, the peak leaving the city is spread from around school time, say 3.30pm, to around 5.30pm, with the worst of it seeing traffic back up on Hereford Street, travelling east, back at times past Edgell Lane.
But again, once we clear the Trinity roundabout, there is generally a good run to Pineview, Marsden Estate and Laffing Waters.
This roundabout needs to be a full two-lane roundabout with slip lanes as well, to allow drivers who simply wish to turn left to do so without having to add to the traffic in the roundabout.
The bloody-minded madness of our last council is nowhere more evident than in their plan to build a roundabout in the middle of Hereford Street, as though this will somehow solve the problems at Trinity.
Without digressing to the extraordinary futility of the money being spent on extra sporting grounds that may be of little benefit to locals for many years, any need for a roundabout at Edgell Lane is years away. No wonder Mr Toole says council has to lift its game.
Many residents of east Bathurst have no option but to use Trinity roundabout five and six days each week, unlike people (possibly visitors on weekends or after business hours) who may wish to use the sporting fields at irregular times.
And if you think it must be easier to travel south on Gilmour Street to the highway, just try to travel past Kelso Public School at around 8.45am and 3.15pm.
It is a problem that can't be fixed, but Trinity roundabout certainly can.
Edgell Bridge is a problem from time to time, and it will need raising long before Hereford Street needs to be four lanes wide, but the clear and immediate problem is Trinity roundabout.
I know it is considered "poor form" for a new council to change a decision of a previous council, but when it is so obviously wrong, and is one of the issues that has caused such change in the make-up of our council, surely the decision to spend money on a new roundabout in the middle of Hereford Street could be revisited, with a view to moving the money, together with past developer contributions, to the area on that street of greatest need, which is Trinity roundabout.
