IT IS good to learn from your columns (Thursday, July 28) that the possibility of a new rail link between Cirencester and Kemble is still being considered.

Those of us who can remember the tremendous resistance to the Beeching cuts that closed the original track in the early 1960s can have a sense of justification that at long last something sensible is being done to address the increasingly congested and inadequate road system that serves the town of Cirencester.

Of course any project, even one that is as meritorious as this one, will encounter opposition.

Nevertheless, the arguments put forward by the seven who have signed a letter opposing the scheme are weak and narrowly focused without any satisfactory alternative.

It is indisputable that with the now inevitable considerable expansion of the town looming something must be done before there is sustained gridlock on our country roads.

Kemble station car park is not capable of infinite expansion.

The answer is something that is kind to the environment, relatively simple to achieve and will provide easy and rapid access to the outside world.

A new modern, low-cost railway will ensure that the needs of the next generation will be better served.

I hope that any further approval of plans for thousands of new homes will endorse this and include provision of a new rail link as a mandatory requirement.

REV DR NICHOLAS HENDERSON
Cirencester