Sir, Approaching Abingdon, hoardings refer, optimistically, to improvements' in Abingdon roads. The optimism was, predictably, unfounded, and what we have is, at best, a failed experiment, and, at worst, a scheme which had obviously fatal flaws, and was still forced through.

There are two people, or two groups of people in Oxfordshire Highways who ought to be sacked: namely, those responsible for forcing through such a poorly thought out and poorly implemented scheme, and, secondly, those responsible for the siting, installation and programming of traffic lights in the area; both are appallingly bad.

Regarding the Stratton Way scheme first: traffic has to endure all the enormous hold-ups, perpetual blockages in High Street, and long delays on the road from Culham for what advantage?

This enormous cost and upset to the town has achieved nothing except an insignificant proportion of traffic going the opposite way along Stratton way.

Traffic flowed much better before this absurd scheme was introduced. Common sense tells you that if you change a free-flowing system into a scheme with badly programmed traffic lights in crucial places, there will be huge hold-ups.

The best recommendation that can be made is to abandon this scheme and go back to one-way flow in Stratton Way, and remove the traffic lights.

Regarding lights, does someone in Oxfordshire Highways have shares in a traffic light company, since they seem to want to install them in the most stupid places? There are many examples; the two most ridiculous installations are on the road running alongside the railway line and the power station (totally unnecessary), and words almost fail me in regard to the Hales Meadow lights. How can installing lights there do anything other than worsen the queues coming from the Culham direction?

B J C Burrows Sutton Courtenay