Roundabout

Sometime in the seventies, as well as pulling down many of the more attractive buildings in Romford, a massive ring road was put round the town centre. Effectively this cuts you off from the shopping centre unless you want to do drive there or follow a very circuitous route to walk there.

For some time I've been thinking how awkward this would be for someone frailer or less mobile than me. Just before I took this photo an elderly lady had asked me as I emerged from the underpass beneath this roundabout how she could get to the Range, visible across the roundabout, maybe 200 yards as the crow flies.

After some discussion we worked out that there was no east direct route, by walking about a mile round three sides of a square she could get there, or by walking about 200 yards in the opposite direction she could catch a bus to the car park (referred to rather grandly by people round here as "the Brewery Shopping Centre" the the shops are attractively arranged round

I'm really not against progress, I'm not a Luddite, but in what parallel universe does what's been done to Romford and many other small market towns round Britain represent progress? Most people, and especially children or the elderly, are cut off from the shops, businesses and other facilities unless they have a car to get there. And at weekends, to use your car means you sit in nose to tail traffic for ages to get into town. So no wonder people go to Lakeside or Westfield