‘Workers are polite, considerate and accommodating’

Having read the article dated February 5 in the Sidmouth Herald (Traders’ takings hit by roadworks’) and listened to other retailers, I am in full sympathy with their plight of lost income.

However, what people don’t realise is the problems these highways personnel have to contend with.

It it not just a case of the random digging of holes, putting new pipes in and refilling the holes. It requires careful digging in order to avoid vital electricity cables, gas and water pipes, complex investigations and the rectification of damage done over many years. One faulty move could cause not only damage to vital utilities, but a fatality of the worker concerned.

That is why sometimes it has been necessary to halt work and reassess the situation. I feel that because we have been in the thick of this, I am able to talk from experience.

The people working on this project have been very polite, considerate and accommodating and do not deserve bad press. After all, they are only doing a job that they have been trained to do.

It has indeed been frustrating for many of us living in Sidmouth, but perhaps the fault lies not with these workers but with the poor organisation of traffic control and lack of signage within and around the town.

There again, we have become a complaining world, so perhaps a little more patience, a little less criticism and a thank-you for attending to a problem which has accumulated from many years of wear and tear.

Rome was not built in a day, so patience and consideration please and a better understanding of the facts.

Linda A Ambrose

Temple Street, Sidmouth