SIR — I confess that on first hearing about the 'shared space' scheme (Free Press December 20), I was immediately sceptical.

The idea of a largely elderly population 'sharing space' with vehicles seemed like a recipe for disaster.

I've seen sufficient examples of people stepping off pavements without looking and risking being hit by vehicles to believe that the uncertainty that vehicles could be anywhere, albeit hopefully travelling slower, is likely to increase accidents, not decrease them.

And having watched a short film about how such a system was created at Fountain Place in Poynton, I'm afraid that I'm even less convinced that the idea is right for Minehead.

The Poynton situation was totally different. The junction carried over 27,000 vehicles a day with around six per cent of them HGVs, and the 'shared space' scheme was initiated as a means of trying to reduce traffic congestion at an extremely busy round junction.

This is not the problem in The Avenue in Minehead. There can occasionally be congestion but when I've seen it, the problem is more often caused by bad or double parking, not weight of traffic.

A second reason for the radical redesign of the Poynton junction was the large number of traffic lights which on the one hand caused traffic queues, and on the other, encouraged drivers to 'speed up before the lights changed', thus making accidents more likely.

This, too, is not the problem in Minehead. Apart from a zebra crossing there isn't anything causing traffic to either speed up or get grid-locked.

It was also decided that removing signage and pavements would enable drivers to concentrate far more on being alert for pedestrians instead of having to read the signs and presumably worry about mounting the pavements because they weren't looking where they were going.

But signage isn't the problem in Minehead. We don't have too many signs, in fact it's arguable that there aren't enough.

And as for the existence of pavements causing a potential hazard to drivers, I'd be interested to see any accident reports when an incident occurred in The Avenue because a driver decided that the pavement was a better place to drive.

Another aspect quoted in the Poynton film was that by removing the raised pavements the space available for vehicles was reduced. which suggests that the space for pedestrians was actually increased.

If the idea was that the space was shared and the pavements were, in effect, flattened, that means that cars and people could roam wherever they wanted. Am I happy with that concept? Most definitely not!

Poynton was described as "a traffic signal controlled wasteland" that was "splitting the town into two". Neither of these statements is appropriate for Minehead.

It was also significant that at the end of the film showing the transformed crossroads, it never showed anything like the number of pedestrians negotiating the new arrangement that we habitually see in Minehead at normal times, let alone in the holiday season.

To put it in perspective, we saw far fewer pedestrians 'sharing their space' than we'd normally see at 8am on a wet Sunday morning in Minehead out-of-season!

'Shared space' is about reducing the dominance of motor vehicles, their speed and associated casualty rates by creating a feeling of uncertainty in the driver's mind.

The rationale is presumably that if there is an absence of traffic lights at a junction then motorists will drive more cautiously in case there's someone, motorist or pedestrian, coming in the opposite direction or from round a corner.

This is based upon what is known as the risk compensation effect, which suggests that the more dangerous the activity the more care the participants take.

However it is clear that whilst the UK government apparently believes the 'shared space' concept reduces accidents, many organisations representing blind, partially sighted, and other vulnerable people have been highly critical of such schemes.

Minehead has more than its share of 'vulnerable' people - do we really believe that a 'shared space' environment will be safe for them?

Minehead's problems are nothing to do with traffic congestion. If they were, every tourist destination in the South West would be stampeding to ditch their traffic lights, burn their road signs and sit back and watch their town and failing businesses transform themselves miraculously.

Minehead's problem is incredibly simple, although the solution clearly is not - we need more people to visit and take their holidays in the town.

I cannot see how the shared traffic proposal as it stands will do anything to increase the number of visitors to the town.

The only people likely to visit Minehead who might not otherwise have done so would be representatives of other towns curious to see if the 'shared space' scheme has transformed Minehead into a thriving and vibrant holiday location. I fear that they would be sorely disappointed and won't return.

I don't know what the terms of reference are for the Minehead vision manager, but with the utmost respect I believe that his role should be to discover and implement ways in which more visitors are encouraged to visit our town, not get involved in promoting an, in my opinion, crackpot 'shared space scheme' which will allegedly solve problems that the town doesn't actually have and totally ignore the problems which it does, and which many people are trying to resolve, namely a lack of visitors and a holiday season which is too short.

And at the risk of sounding churlish, I have to ask how much would this scheme cost? One assumes there would be a consultation fee even before the inevitable studies leading to an accurate costing, and then there's the construction work itself. The final cost quoted for the Poynton 'shared space' scheme was around £3m.

Where would the money come from to create this scheme? Where would the money come from for a project that would do absolutely nothing to help promote Minehead as a premier holiday destination?

Surely, if such monies are available, there must be better ways in which to spend it.

Suggestions on a postcard please to the Minehead Visioning Group?

P Davies,

Queens Road,

Minehead.