Thank you for the informative article in last week’s Wiltshire Times, describing the run-up to the Wiltshire Council Cabinet meeting to decide budgets for our highways.

I am writing this letter on October 22, just as they start their discussions. By the time the next edition is out, the Council Cabinet decisions will be made.

As a resident of Bradford on Avon who is aware of the design of the Historic Core Zone, I fervently hope that the council gives greater priority to highway maintenance than to this well-intentioned but flawed project in one of their towns. The Bradford on Avon HCZ is by no means a priority, and may do great damage in the long term.

With increased population as housing projects fill up, more and more residents are local, making local journeys. The HCZ (essentially a pedestrian precinct, but on the A363) is designed to ‘discourage’ through traffic from crossing the town via Market Street. All it will do, as the queues squeeze through the inner gateways, is dishearten or enrage the drivers. Especially as the latest survey suggests it is a journey they have to make to get to work, shops, doctors or schools.

A recent similar experiment in Bath, on Julian Road, was reversed when re-surfacing became due and the customary black surface and striped zebra crossings were reinstated, by popular demand.

Please, Wiltshire Council, show you are getting your priorities right. Relinquish this costly and futile experiment.

Kate Nottage, Whitehill, Bradford on Avon.