Madam,

The crossing from the pavement below Porkington Terrace to the path down to Barmouth Bridge is clearly dangerous to pedestrians (there is no pavement at all for them on the other side of the road, the A496), to cyclists coming up the hill out of Barmouth (they are thus facing a dangerous right hand turn) and to all who are coming away from the bridge (who cannot see whether traffic heading for Barmouth is bearing down on them till they are dangerously close to, or actually standing on, the A496 itself).

I propose a pedestrian-controlled crossing there.

The current situation is dangerous.

The consequent impediment to traffic flows would be slight, in that any delay to road users would quickly be made up in both directions, leaving or entering Barmouth.

I know that there are grander plans afoot to make entry to the bridge safe, (Cambrian News, 1 September, ‘Politician backs plan for traffic-free route to town’; a large notice about the plan now on the bridge path itself; consultation meetings in Barmouth a few years ago, etc).

Many must recently (Cambrian News, 17 Oct, ‘Thousands turn up to celebrate bridge’s 150th birthday’) have noticed the potentially lethal crossing of the A496 to access the bridge from the Barmouth side.

A large part of the reason for the very impressive scheme to construct a traffic-free walkway from opposite The Last Inn to the bridge is surely safety.

The danger that the entrance to the bridge presents needs eliminating as quickly as possible.

That is what a pedestrian-controlled crossing would do.

That crossing would, I suppose, become less used if and when the grander and potentially entirely risk-free scheme becomes a physical reality. It would, however, still be of use to all who live on Pocklington Terrace when they decide to journey across the bridge and would shorten the journey of others.

The remedy of a user-controlled pedestrian crossing would be relatively cheap to install, would make Barmouth residents and visitors safer, and can be done very quickly indeed.

Yours etc,

Ian MacIntyre, Shelbourne Court, St John’s Hill, Barmouth.

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