SIR – We are responding to Councillor Collier‘s letter to Romsey Advertiser on 9th March in which he again stresses that the Project Board have been vested with the power to decide on the enhancement to Romsey Market Place. This repeats the position stated by Councillor Cooper in the 22 December edition of Romsey Advertiser:- “If your readers do not like their Councillors’ decision making then they can vote against them at the appropriate time”. The professionalism of engineers at Hampshire County Council has never been questioned by “Rethink”, however we continue to challenge the suppression of information by Councillors and the refusal to provide answers to practical questions that are raised by our 180 supporters. The specific concerns that we have identified were summarised in the 12th January edition of the Romsey Advertiser.

At a meeting in December 2017 we were refused a copy of the Safety Audit and it was only released to us in February 2018 after we had raised a “Freedom of Information Request”. Only then did we discover it was a feasibility stage report produced two years ago having very limited scope as it only covered the tracking of large vehicles through the town centre. It did not cover pedestrians, crossings, parking, mobility scooters or other vehicles. We made a presentation to the Project Board on 29th January, however the reply we received was not comprehensive and we had to write again on 5th February to highlight omissions. We were advised on 13th February that “there is nothing to be gained from further correspondence between the Board and your Group”. Therefore we wrote to Councillor Humby of HCC and urged him “to respond to the voice of the electorate and authorise a fully independent Detailed Design Safety Audit”. On 2nd March he confirmed that this would be done. Our Councillors need to understand that safety is everyone’s concern.

DEREK LANGFORD - rethinkromseymarketplace@gmail.com