IN reply to Mr O'Connor (The Bolton News, June 27), "Is one-way system plan linked to road charge?" The categoric answer is no.

Mr O'Connor claims that the purpose of channelling traffic on to St Peter's Way and Topp Way is because these two roads are apparently earmarked for congestion charging. The fact of the matter is that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that this has ever been considered. The proposed congestion charge is actually based upon the M60 ring road around the Manchester conurbation. No plans have ever been presented to Bolton council that propose any charge within the borough, let alone any specific roads.

St Peter's Way and Topp Way are already town centre relief roads. But there is ample room for improvement. This is why we will be building a new slip road from Bury New Road on to St Peter's Way, which will go a long way to reducing congestion on both Turton Street and Bradshawgate leading to the new Church Wharf development.

Bolton town centre is about to embark on a massive development programme, which includes huge amounts of investment into retail, office and residential units by private developers, a cultural quarter at Le Mans Crescent, a new single site bus station/train station interchange, and a new central swimming pool together with expansion by the University. New multi-storey car parks are planned and these need to be easily accessible to car users.

Therefore, with all this in mind, we need to ensure that access to and around the town centre by users of all forms of transport is as easy as possible. We need to look at the central road system and take the opportunity to make those improvements for the long term.

Cllr Nick Peel, Executive Member for Environmental Services