SIR — It’s a bit rich for Cllr Lipscomb to shed tears over traffic problems around the proposed Aldi development (Chronicle, October 29).

He and his fellow councillors should have paid far more attention to the objections of local people about the traffic problems the whole Waitrose/Aldi development would cause in a residential area.

Instead he and his fellow councillors accepted a ‘traffic study’ commissioned by Waitrose themselves which was a joke, a complete whitewash.

Among other things, it claimed that most people in Winchester would do most of their shopping in their nearest local supermarket, and it would cause no increase in cross-town traffic.

So, no-one from St Cross shops in Waitrose then!

Perhaps Cllr Lipscomb can explain why I now have to wait longer to exit onto Stockbridge Road, and why an average of one-in-four or five of the cars I wait for turns in to Waitrose? It also seems people in Highways don’t know what to do about the large numbers of pedestrians making the dangerous crossing at the end of Stoney Lane, right by the roundabout, to get to Waitrose and now, Friarsgate medical centre.

Many of these people are elderly and/or have mobility problems.

More problems are caused by the number of Waitrose customers who block the lay-bys meant for the local shops instead of using the car park.

On a number of occasions I have been unable to park to go to the small shops there — so much for the ‘shop local’ campaign.

There do not even seem to be any residential units there as previously promised.

Finally, has anyone taken any notice of the huge increase in car parking on local roads and the inconvenience caused to local people? This seems to be because there are hardly any parking spaces for the Friarsgate staff, so councillors kid themselves that the staff will use buses instead!

Would they like to do a survey on whether this is true?

Many people opposed this development because it was simply in the wrong place — a residential area, 50 yards from a primary school and by a junction that was already a bit of an accident blackspot.

Once Waitrose was agreed, only a fool would imagine it was possible to refuse Aldi. Councillors should not consider the problems there are anything but their fault.

A P Lodge, Teg Down Meads, Winchester.