JEREMY Leyton was right in his criticism of the high-rise bridge at the eastern end of the NIDR (Postbag, January 6) in that it will cause all sorts of problems when heavy lorries attempt to enter the Priory Fields shopping area.

But this will be nothing compared to the danger encountered when they - and all vehicles from Priory Park - try to drive onto the NIDR when it is fully opened.

In 2011, SCC planners told me that it was far too dangerous to allow lorries to exit onto the Obridge viaduct permanently (even though they would have to while the new road was being built), hence the new NIDR bridge needed to be raised high enough to allow lorries delivering to Priory Fields to pass underneath.

Their new exit road has been open for months but drivers still prefer to use the exit onto Obridge thinking, presumably, that it is safer. If they won’t use it now they will surely be even less likely to when the new road is fully open and the exit made far more dangerous.

The new, high bridge is a totally ridiculous piece of road planning and whoever is responsible should be run out of town.

What a shambles it all is but at the moment, and until the new bridge is fully open vehicles can leave the Priory Park estate safely and so some of us hope that the contractors and council delay agreeing on the finances and thereby the road will remain closed indefinitely. It will be far safer.

DAVID HARRIS
Taunton