Sir, The Highways Department has squandered £ 65,000 trying to achieve the impossible on Hollins Lane in order to

placate Mr Acland, and he is still not satisfied (Gazette, April 5, 'Work verges on the ridiculous').

He could have offered to sell land alongside the lane to the Local Authority.

The road could then have been widened and made safe for the increasing volumes of traffic, and a new hedge planted.

Close to the A6, this process had already commenced.

Years ago land was acquired and hedges moved to allow re-alignment of the road.

But what does the Highways department do? The new kerbs slavishly follow the 'slalom' course of the existing line.

I find it quite incredible that the Highways Department, with all its expertise, could not have foreseen the outcome.

Heads should be rolling.

Apparently the work was carried out to improve safety for drivers, amongst other things.

I would be very grateful if Mr Pate could explain how making an already narrow and twisty road even narrower and more twisty can achieve that aim.

A road wide enough for two cars to pass safely is now effectively reduced to a single-track road with passing places.

Vehicles are forced to run in the centre of the road on a collision course.

Pedestrians cannot take refuge behind the kerbs unless they are prepared to walk ankle-deep in mud.

As anyone could have foreseen, this work has not addressed any of the problems and has made the road considerably more dangerous, particularly after dark and in adverse weather.

This can only lead to more accidents, injuries and possibly worse.

Most people know that the way to improve the safety and capacity of a road is to widen and straighten it.

One would have expected the Highways Department to know this, but for some reason it has done the exact opposite.

Perhaps the new

thinking is that if they make the road more difficult and dangerous to use and some accidents occur, word will get around and motorists will find an alternative route.

Is this what Mr Pate had in mind when he said that ' motorists will modify their

behaviour'? This is a very cynical ploy to coerce motorists, and not what we expect from the guardians of road safety.

There is nothing wrong with my motoring behaviour, therefore, no reason to modify it.

Hollins Lane is not a 'rat run' as the article stated (nor am I a rat for using it).

The only alternative route is through the centre of Kendal, and no responsible person would add to the congestion and suffer the delays that this entails.

Hollins Lane is the only viable route for anyone wishing to get from the north side of the town to the A591, and this will remain so after the proposed 'improvements' to the town centre have been implemented.

The north side of Kendal and the A6 are cut off from the main road network.

The problem is that the by-pass is only half a by-pass, and until a link-road is built between Plumgarths and the A6, no amount of tinkering in and around Kendal will solve the town's traffic problems.

George W.R.

Smith

Windermere