Here we go again! 'A northern relief road will solve Kendal's traffic problems and assure the town's prosperity for many years to come'.

Abject nonsense!

This latest outburst comes on the back of the traffic problems caused by the recent floods.

I challenge anybody, anywhere, to prove that the existence of a northern relief road would ease traffic problems in the town caused by the closure of two of the town's main bridges.

The arguments against a relief road are many and telling, too many to list here. But The principal commercial reason against it is best highlighted by the simple consideration - 'who would seek to develop a manufactory or warehousing at a location some 12 miles from the main north/south artery, the M6?'

Consider a potential developer, whose main market is to the north of Kendal. His vehicles would be abeam Kendal at Junction 37 and then would have to travel eight miles further south to Junction 36 before turning north again to travel the 12 miles to Mintsfeet. A total round trip (back to Junction 37) of 40 miles.

Such a developer would sensibly site their new development at Tebay or Penrith, where commercial estates exist within a half mile of the motorway. Similarly, for a southern market, Carnforth or Lancaster would be more appropriate.

Then there is the environmental impact.

Far from improving the flood defences, (a truly preposterous suggestion), the many millions of gallons of run off would exacerbate it.

Burneside would, without exaggeration, be ruined. Croppers' and their suppliers' lorries would have to access the Burneside/Kendal road via a new major roundabout built at the expense of many residential properties.

The light pollution would be awful. The raw unsightliness of the massive embankments necessary to reduce the gradient from the Toll-Bar roundabout to the floodplain equally so.

The ugliness of the forty-foot concrete piers supporting the road over the railway would be matched by those of the river crossings.

The road, in short, would represent an all round environmental disaster.

Our councillors are surely sincere in their wish to ensure the town's future prosperity, but a northern relief road is simply not the answer.

Were they to apply their thoughts, energies and development budgets to, for example, attracting large office re-locations (get government departments out of major cities) they would greatly stimulate the town's economy while protecting the environment and, importantly, preserving Kendal's very nature as an attractive market town.

If, and it is a very big if, a relief road is needed at all then it must be an eastern relief road from Junction 37 of the M6.

It would be six miles at most from the east bank of the Kent and the Appleby/Shap road light-industrial areas.

John Shiels

Burneside