There was an article in the Gazette [August 7] that had all the hallmarks of an advert on TV for a hotel company, it stated: “Motorists have been caught performing U-turns to avoid a bus lane...around roadworks for a new traffic island to stop them doing it”...thank you Captain Obvious.

It will, therefore, come as no surprise that now the traffic island has been completed vehicles of various sizes are now doing U-turns around it.

The smaller ones are doing the same as before by just going round it while the larger ones are driving up to the side wall of the Minories, reversing slightly and then carrying on as before.

If there are vehicles already parked by the wall, they just go down Lewis Gardens, turn and come back.

As has been mooted before: If the authorities want this behaviour to stop, they either have to install a camera and fine offenders or close that unnecessary bus lane at the end of the High Street which would be the most practical solution, if it were not such a cash cow for the council.

There is one place, however, where a U-turn should be allowed, if not encouraged, and that is the land at the end of Lewis Gardens adjacent to Firstsite where Alumno still want to build 336 student flats, despite many in Colchester opposing the idea and the university itself stating that it does not want student accommodation in Colchester, preferring the campus approach to the extent that they are planning to build a further 1,000 flats on their site.

Alumno came up with this grand solution to objections raised...build a lift in Priory Street.

It is obvious, by proceeding with their appeal that all those cash signs flashing in their eyes and the clinking of coins in their ears that Alumno neither see what’s being written nor hear criticism about it.

While there is nothing you and I can do about Alumno wangling its way through the appeal system, we can at least, when our councillor comes up for re-election find out of he/she backed the building of the flats and vote them out if necessary.

Richard Hart

Harwich Road, Colchester