Sir, Having read that a pressure group has been formed to reopen the case for an interchange at Lodge Hill for those entering north Abingdon, and leaving Abingdon to go south, I write giving my wholehearted support to those who have taken up the cudgel and reopened discussions with the highway authority to make it possible for the residents of north Abingdon to have this long-awaited access to the A34.

To argue using the excuse that this would put more traffic on the A34 and so is undesirable is absolute rubbish. This bypass was initiated to stop the traffic passing through Abingdon using the old A34.

The highways authority at the time of the original construction partly finished this interchange at Lodge Hill because they didn’t have the funds to finish it properly.

With the current road system, to go south using the A34, from north Abingdon at 5pm in the evening it will take almost 45 minutes to negotiate Copenhagen Drive, and Colwell Drive due to the relatively new expanding Abingdon Business Park and police station — or even more time if you go through the town using Stratton Way.

At that same time, coming south into north Abingdon, the Marcham interchange is a nightmare. It’s sometimes necessary to make a long detour, via Shippon or Long Tow into Wootton, then down into the Northcourt Road, which, in itself, is extremely dangerous with Abingdon and Witney College having no organised picking-up places for the Fitzharrys School coaches and with parents waiting to collect their children.

This Government is striving to meet its pollution and conservation targets. Improving this interchange will remove serious amounts of Abingdon’s congestion. People waiting in cars with their engines turning out CO2 does nothing to help our environment.

Furthermore, I think the residents of North Abingdon have suffered enough. It’s certainly time something was done.

Mr F EWoods Ex-rural district councillor 1960-1969 Tatham Road Abingdon