Mr A Alcorn
Project Leader
Highways Agency 
Major Projects (Midlands and South West)
Zone 2/26H
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6HA

5 February 2007

Dear Mr Alcorn,
Signage on the A30 at Merrymeet Junction, Whiddon Down
I am writing in part to thank you for completing the new junction and bridge at Merrymeet months ahead of schedule. I was also pleased to see the Newsletters, issued by Mr Heron of Parson Brinckerhoff and James Heike of Interserve during construction, which kept our community in touch with progress.
However I was disappointed and concerned that the direction signs on the A30 had been erected without consulting the neighbouring villages. The result is that none of the local villages are mentioned on any of the approach signs, yet other, more distant, centres are mentioned twice. As I travel up and down the A30 I note that this is in marked contrast to the information displayed on other boards.  For instance, the signage at Woodleigh Junction, an improvement that was completed relatively recently, includes directions to local villages and even, on the main sign, to a venue as small as Fingle Bridge!  
I see that in a letter to Dr Brotherton concerning this matter, you emphasise the need to provide clear, useful, easy to comprehend signs, designed with safety issues in mind, following various documentary advice. I would strongly suggest, based on a considerable amount of local feeling, that the present signs are not useful and are certainly not easy to comprehend if the driver is intending to visit Whiddon Down, South Zeal, Sticklepath, Drewsteignton or Chagford.
I find your comment about the “need to be conscious of the … proximity of Dartmoor National Park” very surprising in view of the complete lack of signage to any of these important Dartmoor villages!
I am very pleased to hear that you are commissioning a review on this matter and would ask that you forward my letter to your consultants in Parson Brinckerhoff.  
Yours sincerely,