RECENTLY Coleford has hit the headlines with the redevelopment of the Co-op and its tower.

For all those who wonder what this tower is for, it is quite simple. It is a helicopter landing pad for the home deliveries.

The reason this is needed is as before long Coleford will be gridlocked with the extra traffic commuting out of Coleford from the Angel Fields estate and the lorries making deliveries and customers flocking to the new Tesco if it ever gets passed.

The present proposed Tesco site will create even bigger traffic flow problems. The very best the current site needs is a roundabout at the Lords Hill/Station Way junction and into the Tesco site. This will help traffic flow on this junction despite what the boffins at Tesco say.

Traffic currently, even with the new set of priorities at the traffic lights by the Kings Head backs up over 100 metres on three of the approach roads at peak flows and often at other times. Traffic coming down Lords Hill from Coalway faces problems getting onto the bottom part of Lords Hill at its junction with Station Way. Traffic here often queues from Bells Club. With increased traffic calling at Tesco and other current and planned developments in and around Coleford the problems will be compounded even more.

All this queuing traffic creates pollution and I suspect that at times these levels exceed recommended safe levels.

Now the police are shutting shop in Coleford and sharing office space at the council headquarters; along with the near abandonment of the Magistrates' Court in Coleford. Both of these facilities no longer conform to basic requirements. It is highly unlikely these building will ever get used again. This site then becomes vacant.

This presents Coleford with the opportunity to get rid of the traffic lights by the police station and replace them with a roundabout, helping traffic flow. This could be funded by the building of a supermarket on the area covered by the police station and magistrates' court.

The old Job Centre could be demolished and the car park redesigned so that the entrance could be off the new roundabout as would be the entrance into the supermarket.

Now before anybody starts screaming that this area is not right for such a development consider the alternatives – mothballed buildings falling into disrepair costing the council taxpayer to maintain, housing that will only add to Coleford woes, factory units when there are already plenty of empty ones around the Forest.

How much would it cost? To be honest, I don't know but if the police station site were to be developed by a supermarket then this cost could be borne by the developers as part of the planning conditions.

However there is, at this point in time, a need to do something quite radical for Coleford. The building of a new supermarket in Coleford will happen, be it Tesco or another. Let's do something to help not hinder Coleford's future.

– Frank Williams, Lords Hill, Coleford.