IT is a self-evident truth that Bolton's highway engineers have long been a contributory factor in traffic congestion, and, irritatingly, elected members are implicated in this.

For example: 1. At the junction of Market Street and King Street in Westhoughton, a disabled parking bay is immediately opposite an unloading bay, thus reducing the highway to a single lane, with obvious consequences.

2. A feasibility study, at a cost of £20,000, recommended the improvement of James Street/Long Lane to access the Wingates industrial estate, thus easing congestion at the A6 Church Street junction.

Both of these points have been raised at the area forum.

The latter has elicited the following response from the group engineer, Highways: "The straightforward answer is that this scheme will not progress in the foreseeable future".

So £20,000 was expended, and, 10 years on nothing!

Another feasibility study, three-and-a-half years ago, concluded that the scheme was buildable at a cost of around £1.3 million.

Westhoughton? Where's that?

Wingates? Never heard of it!

Terry Riley, Dixon Street, Westhoughton