I SEE and hear people in Wheatley, like people in Horspath, are again complaining about traffic passing through the villages and that there is a meeting being held on January 31 attended by the local MP to discuss how the through traffic can be stopped or reduced.

This raises two questions. Most families living in both Wheatley and Horspath have at least one vehicle between them and they do not have them only for show, so where do they drive them? Also, with the local MP attending the Wheatley meeting, how many villages will they drive through to get there?

A few years ago, I was talking to one of our parish councillors, and he mentioned the amount of traffic in Horspath. I asked him one question: if he were going to drive to London from Horspath, which way would he go? His answer was through Wheatley and on to the M40.

My reply was, what is the difference between you doing that and people from the M40, and beyond, doing the same in the opposite direction? His only response was to shrug his shoulders and walk away.

I, like most other drivers, pay tax and insurance every year to entitle me to use my vehicle on the public highway and if I want to drive my 4x4 through Horspath, Wheatley, or any other village, I will do so.

Horspath had no record of accidents in the village until the clever people on the parish council and county council decided to put obstacles in the road (chicanes). Since then, there have been numerous accidents and one death caused solely by these obstacles.

So what do councillors and politicians know about road safety.

In short, nothing.

KEITH BROOKS
Horspath