Bypass will ease gridlock issues

When I saw the picture on the front of last week’s Kentish Gazette, I assumed it was another village striving to get a bypass, to relieve it of through traffic. But no, this turns out to be a community opposing a bypass, which must surely be a unique event in east Kent [‘Fears bypass will “decimate idyllic fields” near Britain’s smallest town’, Gazette March 2].

The reasons given for the opposition are that the proposed bypass will cross meadows and pass through woods and is only being built because of the excessive number of new houses planned for Canterbury.

As Kent comprises mainly of fields and woodlands this is hardly surprising and the reason so many houses are being built is because we are desperately short of houses in this country. With its two mainline stations to London and easy access to the continent, it is not surprising Canterbury is considered an ideal place to build these new houses. It already has many excellent facilities, but its main problem is the lack of infrastructure, with too much traffic already having to use the 70-year-old inner ringroad.

A new outer ring-road will be vital, and building ones that would not only relieve Canterbury, but Fordwich as well, would seem to be a good idea. As to not being consulted, that is a price that a small community like Fordwich must expect, having failed to grow after the Stour silted up and its role as the port for Canterbury ceased. The city has also suffered from low population growth compared to other parts of east Kent, but the new houses should help to reverse this.

Fordwich is a window to the past when transport was by horse and cart, whereas Canterbury has decided to look to the future, while keeping the best of the past.

Which is the right course only time will tell. But the problems of the present, like traffic congestion and shortages of homes, have still to be dealt with. Mike Armstrong

Queens Avenue, Canterbury

Anti-bypass campaigners do not want the bypass to be laid in Fordwich, near Canterbury