IN FURTHERANCE of his campaign for the Valley Route, Bill Dixon says in your letters page (Courier November 13): "If you don't ask - you don't get".
He also criticises me (though not by name) for saying at Town Council that the town is split down the middle over the routes (for the link road).
Between 2003 and 2007 Bill and his Conservative colleagues virtually controlled Mid Devon District Council. Given this ideal opportunity during those four years, what did he do about it? Did he "ask but not get"?
The truth is that Bill understood then that any proposal needed to be fundable and achievable and that is why, since his election to the County Council in 2005, Nick Way has been lobbying for a link road of some sort to relieve the awful pollution problems experienced by residents in the Exeter Road area.
As a member of the Planning Committee I am unable to indicate whether I support or oppose any particular route.
However, I am aware from the recent survey the Lib Dems carried out throughout the whole town that there is almost universal opposition to the Western Route and clear majority support for the Valley Route.
My personal preference is for the town to have a by-pass but I have had to recognise for some years that it is simply not going to happen for decades, if ever.
The survey to which I have just referred also reveals that, if the Hillside Route can be built much sooner than the Valley Route, roughly half those whose first preference is the Valley Route switch their support to the Hillside Route.
That is what I meant by my statement that the town is split down the middle.
I note that the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the area is in favour of the Hillside Route and it remains to be seen what conclusion is reached by the Conservative leadership at County Hall.
My main hope is that they do not choose an option which effectively kicks a solution into the long grass for years. Traffic and pollution in Exeter Road must be reduced at the earliest opportunity.
David Nation
3 George Hill
Crediton