MARK Formosa, our Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, has joined me in calling on the highways authority to create a roundabout on Wellington’s relief road to ease rush hour traffic congestion.I showed Mark one morning how traffic builds up at the staggered crossroads with Pyles Thorne Road and Ford Street.
We saw how it results in some drivers becoming impatient and taking risks by pulling out in front of other vehicles.
Others crossing from one side to the other were pulling out and stopping in the middle of the road to indicate a right turn and causing oncoming vehicles to hit their brakes.
It can be a dangerous situation and we already see county highways signs at the side of the road quoting statistics about the number of casualties who have been injured in accidents at this crossroads.
Mind you, those signs promised road improvements would be carried out in 2008 and here we are well into 2009 and all the County Council have done is to stick a number ‘9’ over the ‘8’.
Mark is now asking the County Council to look at converting the junction into a roundabout which will ease the queues of traffic at peak times and greatly improve safety for motorists.
I do not think it requires a huge engineering project at great cost to improve this junction, as I am sure a fairly simply mini roundabout would be sufficient.
It would mean that drivers have to approach with a little more care than perhaps some do at the moment, and they would have to give way to vehicles coming from their right, so traffic flows should improve.
I have over the years witnessed a number of near-misses at this junction and it is clear that the traffic situation is gradually getting worse as more people seem to be driving over the Blackdowns to work in the Chard and Honiton areas or are coming from those areas to work around here.
That is why I went along to one the Tuesday morning surgeries Mark Formosa holds in Wellington Community Centre and raised the issue with him.
The surgery is held every Tuesday between 10.30 am and 12 noon and has become very popular with local people who need help with all sorts of issues.
Even though I am a Conservative councillor, I still had to wait my turn and queue to see Mark.
So I was pleased that Mark Formosa so quickly took up my offer to come and have a look for himself, and also delighted to see that he is now taking such prompt action in pressing for something to be done to improve this junction.
Mark Formosa has a terrific track record of taking up local issues which really matter to people and getting something done to help.
He regularly raises issues which other local politicians have either refused to look at or have not even considered.
He is going to make a brilliant MP for Taunton Deane when the General Election finally comes along next year.
- The photograph shows Mark Formosa (left) with Councillor John Thorne at the Wellington relief road crossroads.
