I ATTENDED the Area One Committee meeting at Wanstead Church Primary School last Monday and was appalled at the behaviour of some residents who sought to take over the meeting by shouting down genuinely held views. It made the job of the councillors doubly difficult.

However, when Councillor Burgess announced that he would abandon the flawed one-way barrier in Overton Drive, despite the fact that the parallel route in Cambridge Park is being dug up for the next four weeks, I could not believe my ears.

It is now the commonly held view that the people living in the streets which are bearing the brunt of this rat-running traffic, namely Tennyson Road, Seagry Road, Overton Drive, St Mary's Avenue, The Green, Mansfield Road, Camden Road, Redbridge Lane West and Langley Drive, have been the victims of cynical deception.

How else can you explain the decision to pull the plug on an 18-month experimental order within weeks of its start, while the main alternative road (Cambridge Park) is reduced to a third of its capacity? Members are not elected to waste taxpayers' money, but to take proper long-term decisions which will protect the vulnerable in our area.

The residents who oppose the removal of the through traffic in this residential area should think deeply about their actions. Some 1,530 pupils daily are in conflict with this route, which can carry over 1,000 vehicles per hour just as the children are entering school.

During the very long public inquiry process which preceded the construction of the A12 to M11 Link Road, the Redbridge policy was for total closure of the rat-run. This is the only answer to the problem. Why change now?

JOHN GOLDSMITH,

St Mary's Avenue,

Wanstead.

May 29, 2003 13:00