Sir, When leaving Witney at 4pm during the week, one would normally expect to reach Marble Arch well before 6.30pm, even in heavy rush-hour traffic. However, where did we find ourselves on Monday last week at 5.30pm Hillingdon, Uxbridge, Notting Hill Gate? No we were inching our way towards the traffic lights at Thornhill, having spent an agonising hour on the ring road leading to Headington Roundabout.

Once at the traffic lights, did we see gangs of worthy labourers working feverishly to ensure that the works are completed as quickly as possible. No. No one in sight! Obviously all had packed up and left for the day. Returning later that evening, after 11pm, and passing the deserted worksites, we wondered whether it is really so impossible to find someone with the wit to organise roadworks efficiently enough in order to avoid such chaos and congestion?

A warning notice states that the roadworks will endure for 32 weeks. It takes less than one brain cell and an ability to add two and two together to work out that another 60 hours' work per week (i.e. working between 6pm and 6am Monday through Friday) would produce an extra 80 days' work, thus reducing the work schedule by just over 11 weeks.

Additionally, working through Saturdays and Sundays would produce something in the region of a further eight weeks' work, which I believe reduces the total time spent on the roadworks by some 19 or so weeks. Given that the recent works continued on the bridges on the A40 leading to the Wolvercote Roundabout by floodlight, why is it not possible for work to continue non-stop on this current project until it is finished?

Sandra Woodward, Fordwells