From Alan Jones, Sandown:

I viewed the front page article regarding the proposals to change the road layout near St Mary’s Hospital with incredulity (CP, 17-08-18). Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I moved to the Island five years ago and have yet to see traffic congestion that equalled my daily commute around the Heathrow area.

I recently travelled from Southampton to Eastbourne, a journey of some 80 miles, which took almost six hours to complete.

In my opinion, the Island has very minor traffic congestion, probably the worst being at Coppins Bridge. If the revision at St Mary’s does actually improve the traffic flow, which I doubt, it will make Coppins Bridge even worse.

So surely it is a case of “cart before horse”, or do the planners perhaps think the changes will actually ease the congestion at Coppins Bridge by slowing up the traffic flow from St Mary’s?

Surely it would be better to spend the money on finding a way to get traffic from the Cowes road to the Ryde road and bypass Coppins Bridge altogether.

On another matter, I find the cynical and negative views of Malcolm Mime continue to irritate me (and others). His diatribe last week was one of his worst to date.

If he wishes to be taken seriously he should stop hiding behind a “nom de plume” and silhouette image and come out of the closet.