'I was once overtaken by someone on a zimmer frame' - Grantham taxi driver describes how Taco Bell and McDonalds impacts traffic in town

A taxi driver has written a letter giving his views on some of the shortcomings surrounding traffic and roads in the town.

David Orner, who works as a cabbie in Grantham, described traffic on one particular Wednesday as a "masterclass" in "mayhem".

The letter can be read in full below.

"As part of a sometimes much-maligned work demographic we probably have a better insight into the workings, or not so, of Grantham roads than many other not-so-prolific road users have.

Happily it is not all bad.

The potholes are now in a state that will not remove your entire suspension and have been downgraded to just a severe puncture hazard.

Parking is greatly improved with the council reducing the whole of Springfield Road to a car park.

This follows the clever use of traffic bollards in the form of the new Taco Bell which has added to the existing traffic free-for-all caused by the inexplicable love affair with a grotty little burger.

In case this car park was not the council’s intention there is a simple solution to relieve this traffic-stopping bottleneck…

Someone has spent a great deal of money and oh so much time creating a magnificent junction on the A1 which it is believed will eventually become a bypass around Grantham.

Presently it does not quite qualify as any sort of pass but it does, however, go to a very busy industrial and retail sector that currently can only be reached by the seriously stress-inducing navigation of burgers, pizzas and tacos.

Here’s a suggestion… open it?

Roadworks, everyone loves roadworks. They give parents a heaven-sent opportunity, while running 20 minutes late for school, to show their children how the phrase “road work,” despite what they have learnt, does not always include a verb.

That is, of course, a little unfair to those doing the actual work as it does get done.

The roadworks are not the fundamental problem. What appears to be the reason for interminable delays is the traffic lights controlling the roadworks. They arrive and become operable long before any work starts and remain there and operable long after the work finishes.

Again, a simple solution would be to allow the same people doing the work to set up and remove the traffic lights.

Frustration mounts when you watch the work party leave on a Friday evening and the light-removing party arrives on Monday, always after the school run, to remove them.

Light co-ordination and lack of any visible traffic lights on so many junctions that leave motorists feeling foolish in the middle of the junction whilst being hooted at by traffic who now have the right to proceed is a whole other topic.

Mention must be made of the day that shall forever be known as ‘That Wednesday’.

If mayhem was the objective this was a masterclass!

For those who were not there. A three-way traffic system on the corner of Hill Avenue and Belton Lane just metres from the already congested intersection on Belton lane and Manthorpe Road ensured that traffic in that area would make a glacier look positively swift.

I was on one occasion overtaken by someone on a zimmer frame.

This extended from half term into the school term which for road users was horrifying enough, but needs must as whatever the hole in the ground was doing it was obviously essential.

And then the master class!

Completely unannounced on the day school started the Sandon and Beacon road junction was closed for pothole repair! This junction allows access to six schools so turning Sandon and New Beacon Road into cul-de-sacs was a guaranteed show-stopper.

On the plus-side shopping at Asda would have been a pleasant solitary experience but getting there was probably an impossibility.

The council, whichever one it was, does deserve a little praise in that they turned a four-day job into one-and-a-half days. This could have been more to do with profanity-melted phone lines from many over-miffed residents in eastern Grantham than any desire to actually hurry the job.

The problem with traffic in Grantham is not going away, logic and a little maths will show it can only get worse.

Current housing plans will double Grantham’s number of houses. It will more than double the population for various reasons which will more than double the number of vehicles using the same roads that struggled with half the population!

Grantham is to all intents and purposes… full!"