The easiest way to describe what the recent changes have produced is to quote an email I have sent to the people who may or may not be ultimately responsible for the recent road layout changes in Letchworth. The email was written after i had experienced the way that the Letchworth roads have been changed since 2009. Those unfamiliar with Letchworth should consult a Google map of Letchworth to follow the way I had to drive a previously simple route. Please note that the road called Leys Avenue has been made a one way street in the opposite direction to that shown on the Google map.

I had the job of transporting a disabled person in my car from the top of Broughton Hill to the Letchworth Arts Centre in Leys Avenue this evening and taking the person home again.
Last year it would have been very easy because I could drive up Leys Avenue and park near the Arts Centre, then on the way back I just needed to go to the top of Leys Avenue, turn right round the roundabout into Station Road, down to the roundabout, right into Norton Way South, then left into Hillshott to take my friend home.
Now the journey is a lot more complicated. I couldn't go up Leys Avenue any more. I had to go down to the roundabout at the bottom of Station Road and turn into Station Road. It is impossible to turn left from Station Road into Leys Avenue. I had to go up Broadway and back down Eastcheap and then down Leys Avenue to the Arts Centre.
On the return journey it has been made impossible to make a right turn out of the reversed Leys Avenue into Norton Way South. The only route is via the roundabout at the bottom of Station Road. If ever there was a road rearrangement calculated to generate road rage, the planner who produced this convoluted way to get from place to place around Letchworth has devised it.

Now I ask myself, who will pay for the extra fuel wasted in order to comply with the maddest road arrangement I have come across in more than 50 years driving?

The crude map of Letchworth centre shows the current one-way street arrangements. By virtue of the way the Eastcheap via Leys Avenue link is set up, through traffic is very light. I therefore see little point in preventing a right turn exit from Leys Avenue. The unnamed service road between Station Road and Norton Way South has a large car park at its centre so more traffic emerges from the service road than Leys Avenue and there is no barrier to right turns there. New (unnecessary) traffic lights have been added to complicate the junction of Eastcheap, Leys Avenue and Station Road. I have tried to show that there is NO WAY from Station Road or Broadway into Leys Avenue now. I wonder what cretin thought that arrangement was a good idea. The only ONLY entry into Leys Avenue by car now is via Eastcheap. Blind people HATE the new arrangements, particularly in Leys Avenue. There are NO KERBS OR TACTILES to give blind people some form of guidance. The new and pointless traffic lights make no noises of the sort blind people rely on.
If I could legally enforce my point of view on the idiots who have messed up Letchorth's road system ALL the idiots responsible should be locked in stocks in Leys Avenue so that the people of Letchworth could reward them appropriately for their handiwork. They should remain in the stocks until they agree to pay to undo the worst of their stupidities out of their own pockets.

















The above map of Letchworth has been stolen from Google. It shows how the roads used to be.

If you think that your friends should know about the madness of a road layout that has been imposed on Letchworth, please tell them with my compliments.

Sorry, but I am away on holiday, returning to the office on Tuesday 10th August.

Kind regards

I am not in a position to do much to get the Letchworth roads put into a sensible arrangement for motorists. The person or persons who contrived the present idiotic arrangement are faceless individuals who take no responsibility for the way that their handiwork affects the people of Letchworth adversely.
My thoughts are that if these faceless people can't be named and made to undo their stupid system at their OWN EXPENSE, those who hired these near brainless idiots should take the responsibility for putting the roads right again at their own expense.

I have tried to find named departments and preferably people who have some degree of responsibility for the mad arrangement of Letchworth's roads but I could only find he folllowing.

LGC Town Centre Partnership
Town Centre Manager - Lee Boswell
33 Commerce Way
Letchworth Garden City
SG6 3DN
Tel/Fax; (01462)486999
E-mail: manager@shopletchworth.com
Website: www.shopletchworth.com

I could not find a contact name or address here:
http://www.hertsdirect.org/envroads/roadstrans/transplan/

Maybe you could find out more about the idiots who have messed up the Letchworth road system.

Can you find ways to make them undo the stupid arragements thay have made?

If you know how to organise a better protest web page than this one, please do so as soon as possible.

Wilf

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