Quite a coincidence that last week's edition of the Gazette and Herald carries a letter from a Devizes resident complaining about a new road crossing and the article of others campaigning for greater road safety near their school.

I hold my hands up to Mr Parker admitting I had some input into the new crossing on Potterne Road.

This came out of a realisation that increased traffic from the Fruitfields development, off Downlands Road, was likely to lead to greater difficulty for motorists trying to join Potterne Road, but moreover from the safety of pedestrians; particularly children and their parents, walking to and from Wansdyke School from Broadleas Road and the surrounding area but also a number of youngsters walking to and from Devizes School.

A large part of this new and I believe improved crossing was funded after a meeting with Wiltshire County Council's School Travel Plan advisor and a realisation that the former crossing at the junction of Wick Lane and Potterne Road was unnecessarily dangerous to pedestrians with a considerable number of people crossing at the north-eastern non-crossing side of the junction.

As to the lights, for several years I represented the Campaign for Dark Skies and personally I long for the day when all our street lamps are of such a high standard.

These full cut off lamps maximise the light to the ground while minimising the lightspill so long associated with the orange glow sodium lamps they replace.

So I'd say well done to Wiltshire County Council for giving us this improvement to both the night sky and more importantly road safety and the environment overall because now we have more children walking safely to and from school.

However, from observation I question why the pavement out of Wick Lane on the north eastern side linking into a non-pavement area of Potterne Road has been enlarged as this seems to encourage pedestrians to continue crossing at this potentially dangerous point perhaps the planners at County Hall need to look at this again.

Hopefully if Sue Baross and her fellow campaigners at Southbroom Infants' School speak to the School Travel Plan advisor at County Hall then the road safety in the area of Southbroom Infants' School can be greatly improved as well.

Geoff Brewer

Downlands Road

Devizes