Progress always has to be built

NEWS that there will be summer closures for both the A321 and Nine Mile Ride will be met with groans from many readers.

And no wonder, as there seems to be a never-ending spiral of roadworks across the whole borough.

Our first issue, back in 2015, led on concerns that traffic jams were neverending; columnist Tony Johnson even coined the phrase Chokingham to describe the roads misery we face.

For the people in Arborfield, Barkham and Shinfield, their woes have been compounded by the ongoing delay to the Shinfield Non-Relief Road – now a year behind schedule with no end in sight.

But for much of what the borough is trying to achieve over the next 15 years or so needs to be built on firm foundations.

The new houses need new infrastructure (and also good public transport connections, but that’s another fight). So we must have these new roads, cyclepaths and footpaths.

And these new projects cannot simply be built overnight. They have to be done carefully and thoroughly.

The Bible speaks of a foolish man who built a house on sand; when the rain came it was washed away. So it is with our roads.

While the works will be a pain, particularly the Nine Mile Ride, they will pass and we will all benefit.

Well, as long as they don’t start building more new houses …