Madam,

My wife and I are very frequent visitors to the Barmouth area and use the coast road to and from Harlech regularly.

I have consequently been very interested in the Llanbedr bypass proposal but have not commented on the grounds that I am not a resident.

Our latest experience has changed my mind.

We have many a time been held up there, but Bank Holiday Sunday (6 May) easily broke all records.

Heading south from Harlech, at about 1pm, we came onto the tail end of a traffic queue just outside Llanbedr village and barely moved for minutes on end.

It eventually took us well over half an hour to do the half-mile to Llanbedr bridge, which was where we found the cause of the problem.

There was a motor race at the airfield and the traffic for that was meeting traffic from Shell Island, with (legitimately) parked cars making ‘pinch-points’, thus bringing everything to a halt with the whole lot spilling back onto the main road.

Couple this with some drivers who hadn’t got a clue how to cope with it all and you have a recipe for chaos.

So far as I’m concerned a bypass is a ‘no-brainer’ and the sooner the better.

The argument that the shops will lose trade is silly, because passing trade often can’t stop now (we’ve tried and failed) and in any case some large signs, ‘Local Shops Open’, are all that’s needed, with the bonus that customers will actually be able to stop.

Also, the argument that the bypass will increase air pollution seems ironic when hundreds of vehicles are sat with their engines running right in the heart of the village.

And, of course, residents parked outside their own homes will have less chance of their vehicles being bumped.

It seems to me like a win/win solution, so for goodness sake just get on with it.

Yours etc,

John Stephens, Brook Street, Stourbridge.

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