SIR: Rather than the ad-hoc adjustments to traffic flow which seem to be all that the city council and Hampshire County Council - councillors and officers - can think of, making Jewry Street pedestrian-only would be an imaginative and radical way of making a lasting improvement to the human experience in Winchester. With the Discovery Centre, St Peter’s Church, the United Reform Church, the Theatre Royal, and innumerable restaurants, pubs and bars, the street is crying out to be pedestrianised.

To accomplish the pedestrianisation, the one-way system would be extended up the Upper High Street (already one-way) to the mini-roundabout at the Westgate, right along the B3420 (already one-way) to the junction with City Road, and right south down City Road, which would become one-way, to North Walls. Vehicular access to Jewry Street could still be allowed for essential purposes by means of vigorous licensing. Access to the Discovery Centre car park could be through Staple Gardens, and to St Peter’s Church campus by St Peter’s Street.

Readers, I am sure, are aware of how politicians and officials generate fake news. You reported that an official of the city council, Mr Andy Hickman, has said that the temporary changes that involve the closure of Hyde Street, an ad-hoc adjustment to traffic flow, are going well. It may be from his narrative, but for the many of the normal public, who seem never to be properly consulted or listened to, it isn’t. This is because of the impeding of vehicular movement, and the increased safety and pollution risks involved.

Julian Chisholm,

Arthur Road,

Hyde,

Winchester