IT is about time Jeff Stone (Letters, January 23) stopped peddling his mismash of half-truth, slant and factually incorrect information and for once came clean on town centre and roads issues.

The traffic congestion connected with the current bridge repairs at Eanam, Blackburn, is in no way related to traffic flows that will come into being on the orbital route, nor to the changes in driver behaviour that would follow the proposed closure of Church Street.

The Copy Nook-Eanam bridge is one of more than 100 within the borough that are in desperate need of strengthening. If this work is not carried out then either weight restrictions or complete traffic bans will have to be placed on numerous routes into, out of and around Blackburn and Darwen, lest these bridges collapse as, indeed, at least one in the borough already has done.

Weight restrictions would of course prevent HGVs delivering to town centre or suburban premises.

As a council, we lobbied hard to get the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to accept we had a special case and asked for £7 million over the next seven years.

Now we have been given the bulk of this money, is Mr Stone advocating that it should not be spent, or that we didn't need it, or that the long-term needs of local businesses be neglected?

Some of the most structurally unsound bridges lie on the main routes into and out of Blackburn town centre and this poses a dilemma. Do we repair more than one at a time, bringing severe congestion to a number of routes, or do them in sequence?

Do we close a bridge entirely and effect the quickest repair, but block off completely that route or keep a part of the route open -- as is the case at Copy Nook -- take a little longer with the repair and maintain at least some sort of flow?

I opted for the latter and was supported by my colleagues.

No one likes sitting in a traffic queue, but it is better to be able to get into Blackburn by every route than by only some.

Mr Stone seems to suggest that shoppers should stay away while these works are undertaken -- a rather curious position for a representative of the Chamber of Trade.

Once the orbital route is fully open and if the decision to close Church Street is taken, then all traffic lights on the orbital route will be fully synchronised.

We are also committed to opening not one, but three new routes across Blackburn town centre to enable motorists to access any part from any other -- a scheme which also includes additional short-stay parking.

It is interesting to see that, in all the decrying of pedestrianisation for Church Street, whenever I've asked whether anyone would like to see cars and lorries freely returned to King William Street the answer was a resounding 'No.'

Church Street is no different and what it will achieve additionally is to create the finest and busiest thoroughfare in East Lancashire. Now, why does Mr Stone not want that?

COUN ASHLEY WHALLEY, Executive Member Regeneration, Blackburn with Darwen Council.