ON TUESDAY I fired up the jalopy after a month’s cycling in, mostly, glorious weather. Relax, chancellor, I’m not claiming back a twelfth of my £195 V.E.D.

Destination: Farmfoods for a large bag of spuds which is a bit hairy on a bike – though possible.

On my return, at 14.40hrs, I joined the seemingly ever present queue of traffic on St Denys Road from Cobden Bridge approach all the way back to Thomas Lewis Way. Somehow I managed to be a good citizen and resist the logical urge to divert via Adelaide/North/Priory Roads and save five minutes of my time and more petrol (which the direct route entails).

When the loathsome lights at the Priory Road junction eventually moved into view they were, inevitably, allowing a handful of cars through on the main Portswood-to-Triangle artery before conceding to a solitary car on the feeder road – half of which goes nowhere since the isolation of Horseshoe Bridge.

I feel for the residents of North Road, which is a ‘rat-run’ to those in the know. But, sadly we have a self-proclaimed ‘green’ council which pigheadedly would rather engender a situation which promotes wholly unnecessary petrol wastage/associated fumes and braking/unseen harmful airborne particulates than smooth egress of traffic on a major route.

The only way, alas, to bring about change is for more of us to drive like ‘rodents’ and provoke residents in the North Road vicinity to pressurise their elected representatives to bring back sensible sequencing at these lights.

Unless the opposition sees an opportunity here!

Terry Hickman

Bitterne Park