I HAVE never felt the need to write to the letters page before, and hopefully that need won't arise again, but I am so appalled at the shambles that is 'Taunton town improvements' that I had to vent my frustration.

I refer in particular to the new town centre paving.

As a Taunton resident, I fell - yet again - let down by the latest in a long line of costly mistakes by this council.

The replacement paving (in particular in the High Street area) is quite simply appalling.

It was somewhat of a disappointment to see that it was being replaced with very dated red-block paving (I was rather hoping that rather than replacing what was there before, there would be more of a vision to update and improve) but this all pales into insignificance when you see the shoddy nature in which this has been carried out.

I have never before seen such badly-laid paving, it's an utter disgrace.

READ MORE: Major town centre improvement works announced for Taunton

I have been in the building trade for more than 30 years and I have never seen anything as poor as that.

I can assure you that in the residential construction industry, this wouldn't have a hope of getting signed off, as it is nowhere near an acceptable standard.

Why should publicly-funded projects be treated any differently?

I can only hope that it has not yet been inspected (if so, why not?) and it will be addressed (at what will be a considerable cost, as it all needs replacing) and I hope this cost will not be passed on to the council tax payers.

It would be nice if Taunton's council explained how this has been allowed to happen, what they intend to do about it and at what cost?

What an outrageous waste of money!

The incompetence of this council is now beyond a joke.

Taunton deserves better.

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Taunton