Dear Sir

I would like to strongly support the views expressed by David Iliffe in his letter to your paper last week.

His point about The Waterloo being a cul-de-sac is particularly pertinent.

What goes in must come out, so the residents of the area will be particularly hard hit by increased pollution, congestion and noise.

Conventional thinking assumes that pollution and congestion, particularly at the already very busy junction, can be solved by appropriate traffic management. Really?

I know that there is considerable pressure on the CDC to provide additional car parking in the town and our councillors are clearly taking this responsibility seriously by appointing a group to oversee and solve the perceived problem.

However, with the decision to build a decked carpark, it would appear that conventional thinking has again prevailed.

New ideas may have been flirted with, but there is clearly a lack of courage to embrace them. It is easy to find reasons to follow convention, but it takes courage to try something new.

Why do we keep relying on “experts” who almost invariably think in a conventional way and who don’t live in the town or care what effect their advice will have on our beautiful town or the people who live here.

As I understand it, a very large sum of money is to be borrowed to fund this project and I would urge our representatives to think long term and ensure that we not only get value for money, but insist that alternatives are not just thought about, but are implemented so that Cirencester can become a beacon of light and a model of innovative thinking to the rest of Gloucestershire and further afield.

Colin Young

Cirencester