TRAFFIC congestion in Bury New Road, Prestwich "village" has been in your pages before.

If no parking is proposed the commercial lobby - customers as much as shopkeepers - complain; when limited parking continues to be allowed, the traffic lobby complains.

The problem is not "When Prestwich was a hamlet" - a vision that vanished when the inter-war semis were built.

The problem is we have nine times as many cars on the roads as in the Fifties, complemented by an idleness to walk a hundred yards to the Longfield, Our Lady of Grace, or other off-carriageway car parks.

Which of the choices do we now pick?

(1) Do we continue to take things as they are, soothed by the music on the car radio?

(2) Do we forbid parking on Bury New Road and promote another two or three sidestreet car parks, if necessary buying and demolishing some housing?

(3) Free up parking for shoppers by promoting a multi-storey car park over the station car park paid for out of increased fares taken on the trams?

Meanwhile, do we discourage cars using bollards, barriers, higher town centre parking fees and one-way systems Mon to Sat, 8am to 6pm and bus subsidies funded out of resulting savings on road traffic accidents?

FRANK ADAM