I WRITE with regard to the narrowing of Crompton Way. I would first like to clarify that the Conservative group is not opposed to the reduction of accidents.

However, we believe that reducing the ring road down to one lane will increase the number of accidents as traffic is pushed on to other roads to avoid the inevitable traffic jams that this scheme will create.

I have personal experience of this as I live just off Blackburn Road, on a small close which is at the start of the cut-through used by motorists who are trying to avoid the Moss Bank Way car park and get to the opposite side of town via Scout Road. Around 700 cars drive past my house every day, (information supplied by Bolton Council). Children cannot, and do not, play on our street as it is akin to a motorway with one car after the other speeding passed.

When I take my daughter to school in the morning, I use Scout Road to avoid the queue on Moss Bank Way, and frequently, when I pull off my drive, there can be cars following me which are still there when I get to the lights at Stapleton Avenue in Heaton. This is the fate that awaits the people of Tonge.

Firwood Avenue is already a busy road and, once this scheme is implemented, how long will it be before a child is knocked down, or are the children of Tonge no longer going to be able to play outside their own homes?

There is now clear blue water between the two parties' stance on traffic control.

Labour, who wish to use congestion to calm traffic and appear to be hell bent on penalising those who need to use the roads during working hours (with a tax to follow), and Conservatives, who wish to use the education of drivers with flashing signs informing motorists of their speed, camera enforcement and clever road surfaces to reduce the speed of traffic.

The choice is now with your readers when they vote in just six weeks time as to whether they prefer to be penalised or assisted.

Councillor Stuart A Lever