OLIVER Heald s decision to write to the secretary of state for transport and urge for the widening of the A1(M) between Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City is a very disappointing one. In essence what Mr Heald is proposing is rather than having two lanes of

OLIVER Heald's decision to write to the secretary of state for transport and urge for the widening of the A1(M) between Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City is a very disappointing one.

In essence what Mr Heald is proposing is rather than having two lanes of slow moving traffic, we should in fact have three.

Yes, an extra lane means more space, but this space will not remain empty. It will be filled by more vehicles, and therefore increased congestion, and will lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

There is a more important issue which needs to be grasped here and it has already been alluded to by North East Herts MP Mr Heald when he said that the road should be widened "now that the traffic on the A1(M) has become so heavy".

The problem which needs to be solved is not how many lanes there are; it is how many vehicles are being driven along them.

If the road is widened and traffic on the three lanes "becomes so heavy" are we to expect another letter from Mr Heald, or another petition on the 10 Downing Street website, asking the Government to widen the road once more? Where does it stop?

Back on July 16, 2006 Mr Heald criticised the then deputy prime minister John Prescott's environmental policies in Parliament. He then went on to list some of these policies, the first of which was Mr. Prescott's "failed pledge to ensure that fewer car journeys take place".

The question needs to be asked; does Mr Heald want fewer cars on our roads, or more?

Does he want to cut carbon emissions, or increase them?

I'm afraid that if this stretch of the A1(M) is widened, there will be only one answer to that last question.

WE'VE received quite a response following last week's story about kangaroo meat being sold at a Hitchin restaurant.

People are hopping mad (ahem) that mother and daughter Michelle Dixon and Abbie McGee even dared to raise concerns about the meat being sold.

'How dare they tell us what we can and can't eat', people have written slightly missing the point, 'how naïve' etc etc

One person from Stevenage even wrote in to say that in Australia kangaroos are seen as vermin by farmers "due to their ability to breed prolifically" and because they eat too much.

I know people in Stevenage who are exactly the same - shall we shoot them too?

I WANT to nominate Walsworth Road in Hitchin as the worst and possibly most dangerous road in Comet country.

It currently houses the world's deepest crater which many a car has struggled to get across (could it be coincidence that this monster is right outside a construction site?).

The road is dirty and dusty - how many new builds are going on there at the moment? - and the footpaths, which are already narrow, are made even more so by cars parking on verges.

To put it simply, it is chaotic.

Does anyone else feel the same?