SIR - Having read your letters from readers in the past, I have never felt the need to write myself, until now.

I live in Sidford and our lives have been affected daily by the closure of School Street.

Our only access to and from our home, at present, is via Frys Lane, unless I take my children to school via Ottery St Mary! After getting stuck in Frys Lane for 30 minutes, with two-way traffic quickly becoming gridlocked as it tried to pass each other around the parked cars and people getting out of their cars in an attempt to direct the traffic, I am no longer parking my car on my own drive but half a mile away on the other side of the mayhem.

This has meant that every time I need to use my car to go to work, or school, or take my children to activity clubs, we walk to get to my car four to six times a day. Every day has to be planned on where we need to be and at what time. I can only imagine and sympathise with what the residents of Fry’s Lane are going through with constant traffic and regular gridlock outside their homes.

Why did no-one foresee the problems we are having? A one-way system could be in operation as only one side is being dug up and, with Frys Lane as a loop, all traffic would be single file, or a convoy system could be put in place during the daytime. I just cannot understand why a more suitable solution couldn’t have been found.

We sent an email to Stuart Hughes regarding these problems three weeks ago but are still awaiting the courtesy of a reply.

We have been just left to our own devices for weeks and not just a few days.

Lynn Tompkins

An extremely disappointed resident of Sidford