READER LETTER: Millhouse Roundabout - '˜Path and large sandcastle in middle'

Before work started, I previously wrote in the Guardian that the Millhouse round-about would produce nothing but gridlock for Worksop town centre.
The Millhouse roundabout which is at the start of a 32 week re-development program.The Millhouse roundabout which is at the start of a 32 week re-development program.
The Millhouse roundabout which is at the start of a 32 week re-development program.

I felt it obvious from the plans that no benefit would exist for drivers entering or leaving the town centre. Money would have been better spent putting in mini-roundabouts at the Newcastle Avenue junctions with Water Meadows and Stubbing Lane.

The argument about freeing up land for development is absurd as the only land available could be accessed from the Sainsbury’s roundabout. A pedestrian route into Worksop from St Anne’s estate could have been satisfied by having pavements up to Sainsbury’s roundabout using the bridge over the River Ryton as an underpass to allow for safe, unrestricted crossing of the road and establish a footpath route to the rear of the estate.

As my six-year-old grandson remarked ‘“What have they done granddad, only put a footpath around the roundabout and made a big sandcastle in the middle?”

The delays in construction are outrageous, as the bypass was opened in 1986 and all the land had previously been surveyed and excavated. There should have been no unforeseen issues with the ground work. Contractors put in tenders with contingency plans that account for delay due to weather, construction or materials. There have been no issues with weather or materials. If any with construction it’s down to the engineers working for less than six hours each day with many week-ends not worked. I presume the contract was let with penalty clauses such that we the council-tax payers are now in receipt of at least 25 per cent rebate on the £2.4 million? if not why not?

A snapshot of the disruption to Worksop can be seen from one day when I had to make several trips in and around Worksop. Double-lane traffic built up to past Sainsbury’s, traffic built up from Victoria Square to St John’s Church, traffic built up from Victoria Square to traffic lights at Worksop tech and my last route saw traffic built up from Retford Road to Shepherds Avenue.

‘Can do better’ springs to mind as does ‘could not do worse’.

Alec Thorpe

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