The public meeting to be held in Denholme on Wednesday to discuss timetable options for road-building affecting the village is a welcome exercise in consultation.

The villagers are to be asked, in effect, whether they want to put up with seven-day or five-day working, which would get the job over quickly, or for work to take place on Sundays only - which though less disruptive would take at least five times as long. And they will also be asked to choose what time of year they would like the work to be carried out.

Too often it seems that roadworks are embarked upon with very little information being supplied to the public who either live nearby or who travel along the affected route. And it is not only roadworks. Digging to replace various pipes and cables also disrupts traffic. In fact, at present there seem to be excavations of one sort or another taking place all over the district.

Perhaps we should not grumble. It is good that the infrastructure of sewers, water and gas supply pipes and electricity cables is being replaced and that bumpy road surfaces are being repaired. But it does seem to take an inordinate length of time before the work is completed.

It would be nice to think that the Denholme public meeting might herald a new era in which the public are asked for their views on the timing of all such projects and are kept better informed as to how long a job is expected to take, with bulletins updating the information being issued if there are likely to be delays.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.