I WOULD like to respond to last week’s letter from Mr Newbury, in which he questions the reasoning behind the changes to the junction on the A350 at Lacock, and calls for us to do more.
First of all, I would be delighted if there was never another accident on Wiltshire’s roads, or roads anywhere for that matter, but it’s simply not realistic.
As I have said before, it’s very easy to blame the council every time there is an accident, but the vast majority of them are caused by bad driving.
In the last 10 years we have successfully halved fatal accidents in Wiltshire – so we are obviously doing something right.
Regarding this junction, we carried out a significant amount of modelling, and a full traffic survey in 2016. 
Our highways experts also assessed the traffic signals using specialist software, which is the industry standard approved by the Department for Transport for the modelling of traffic signals. 
All of this showed that removing one of the straight ahead lanes would quadruple the current peak time queues, which would inevitably lead to more rat running through Lacock and the surrounding small villages.
PHILIP WHITEHEAD
Cabinet member for highways and transport
Wiltshire Council