SO, the council are not content with delaying the construction of a new bus station for what is it now, nearly 20 years? Thanks to the Citizen, we discover the council only received tenders for its reconstruction after they closed it, and it may cost too much to rebuild after all!

After many other examples of council ineptitude, past and present, can we really be expected believe any of the claims by many of our elected representatives as regards the cost of other planned or proposed major works? It appears the cost of the proposed western bypass (or whatever it is being called this month) is being estimated at £55 million. Will the powers that be put that out to tender and also discover it will be twice the price? Can Hilton Dawson honestly claim that a new road will bring prosperity to Lancaster and its environs, bearing in mind that if this were true there are several road-covered towns in other parts of Lancashire that do not seem to support such a claim? And what will be the real cost to us all and our descendants, when even more countryside is buried under concrete and Tarmac? Like everyone with a stroke of common sense who has written to you recently, it is clear that the current status quo cannot be maintained as regards road traffic in the area. Friends of mine in Heysham rightly bemoan the heavy goods lorries that often make their lives a misery. But

it also seems that a new road may not be the best solution. The vast majority Newbury residents clamoured for a new road to ease their traffic problems and after one was built, destroying a huge swathe of unique countryside, the traffic levels through that town are now, apparently, as bad as they were before that bypass was built.

As a bus user, travelling from Skerton each morning, I am bemused by car drivers who want yet another road to fill up. Last week, while waiting for one of our beleaguered bus services, 24 of the 30 cars that passed us by on Owen Road had one person in them in the space of 10 - 15 minutes. While this may not be a scientific survey, it does throw up the question: if all these single drivers are making their way to work at the same time, and leave at the same time, why don't they think about car sharing? Or better yet, catch a bus?

Oh, wait -- the council appear to be trying to stopping us doing that. Thanks for exposing this latest travesty of local administration. A shame other newspapers in this area do not appear to employ investigative journalists of a similar calibre.

John Freeman

Baker Street

Lancaster

Thanks for the compliment John but, to be fair to the other papers , remember they have only got 13 reporters to our two -- they'll get round to it eventually. Just don't know how they've got the nerve to charge you for 'news' though -- Ed