THERE is a battle of wills being played out on Swannery bridge.

In what appears to be an attempt to deter people from walking across Swannery bridge a lot of prickly bushes have been planted at the Westham end.

These have been summarily trampled by those who have good reason to continue to walk this way.

The Transport Package was an opportunity for proper provision to be made for both pedestrians and cyclists over Swannery bridge.

Instead the convenience of vehicles was put above all else and pedestrians were consigned to following a route over Westham bridge and cyclists to use the junctions at either end at their peril.

For anyone walking from Westham towards the railway station the direct route is over Swannery bridge – approximately 330 metres as opposed to 660 metres via Westham bridge. Average walking speed is 5km/ hour (1km in 12 minutes) so the time to walk towards the station is 4 minutes via Swannery bridge, 8 minutes via Westham bridge.

Four minutes doesn’t seem very long – ‘allow more time for your journey’ springs to mind – but I wonder how kindly those who designed this ‘improvement’ would view an unavoidable four-minute extension to their own daily journey.

Eventually sense will prevail. This piece of mean-spiritedness, together with the absence of safe egress from Littlemoor and the hazards for pedestrians at Chafey’s roundabout, will be corrected. In the meantime I will take care to look out for those who walk on Swannery bridge, those who exit Littlemoor a little riskily, and cyclists and pedestrians who must cross Chafeys roundabout.

On a positive note: the new cycle and pedestrian bridge over Newstead Road is good and the road layout below is exactly as it should be. I wonder who designed that?

David Williams, Holworth, Dorchester