I WANTED to say how much I agreed with the Farming Diary written by Stewart Lambert (Gazette, July 25) about the proposed flood defences for Kendal.

He wrote: “However, I don’t see how raising the river bank from Mintsfeet to Romney Bridge will contain a torrent unless the bridges are raised or the river bed lowered to let the water away and I really don’t see why the trees have to go.”

He’s so right. Kendal’s bridges are the limiting factor: Mint Bridge in dire need of repair; the closure of Victoria Bridge causing havoc in Kendal; and all those beautiful riverside trees to be sacrificed for a scheme that may well not work as intended, especially without phases two and three going ahead, which are both far from certain.

Imagine the chaos if Mint Bridge were to be closed. All the A6 traffic to and from those industrial estates having to go via Laverock Bridge at Mealbank or via Burneside. It took me 30 minutes to get along the back Burneside road to the A6 the other day because of the volume of traffic coming the other way and the road not wide enough for two vehicles in many places. My alternative route via Sandylands had traffic backed up beyond the post office waiting to get out onto Appleby Road. We seriously need to find other ways from town to the A6 or to the supermarkets at this end of town.

We could really use some creative thinking about how the Kendal one-way system works instead of being so heavily reliant on its bridges, and we need to do repairs before the river damages them; not wait until after heavy rain makes it worse.

Pauline Brocklehurst

Kendal