Dear Editor

YOUR correspondent who wrote to promote the Bathurst development (Standard, April 19) fails to mention some inconvenient truths, such as the fact that a new starter home that costs £250,000 can be considered "affordable". 

Homes or flats built to rent only have to be offered at 80% of open market rent levels to be affordable. How many young working families will have access to affordable homes in that development?

As a town planner in the past I enjoyed visiting Cirencester for its rich mix of shops and its previously vibrant atmosphere, but the centre now looks a mess. 

The Town Council has had funding from past development, but it has not had expert advisers look into the invisible kerb trip hazards of the Market Place "shared space" scheme in Cirencester where dozens have tripped over and several have been were seriously injured, according to reports in your newspaper. 

On the contrary, the Town Council is refusing even to reinstate the push button controlled crossings at the Castle Street end of Market Place, even though cables were left in place for that very reason. 

Nor has the Council taken heed of the final recommendations of a parliamentary committee inquiry by the cross party Women and Equalities House of Commons Select Committee, which in April 2017, concluded that shared space schemes seriously exclude blind and many other disabled and older people from using towns like Cirencester at all.

Kerbs and signal crossings that have been taken out, the Committee say, should be put back in urgently.

The new paved space outside Cirencester Parish Church is an asset to the town. Gosditch Street and the roadway opposite the church could so easily be attractively re-kerbed and have signal crossings. The central square in Wimborne Minster in Dorset is an excellent example of how good this can look. 

Local blind people can then start to use their guide dogs or long canes to make their way around Cirencester as they used to. People of any age can cross using the modern light systems that hold traffic back until everybody is across.

Again using the funds that development generates, the signal crossing that has always been missing at the Dyer Street end could be put in as a much needed facility for all to access shopping on both sides of Market Place.

Yours sincerely

Peter Monk MRTPI

Newnham