A step too far

SIR, - I have remained silent while our pavements have been steam cleaned - only the bit with no potholes, of course. I have not complained about the new replacement street lights on the boulevard - if anyone has even noticed. However the latest money-wasting exercise is a step, or rather a railing, too far. What on earth moved the council to authorise the erection of an extremely ugly railing along the pavement outside Harpenden Post Office in Station Road? Is it to prevent cars from parking there? It will, in reality, stop neither the disabled drivers who do so legitimately, nor those who are too important or too impatient to look for a lawful parking space like the rest of us. It will, indeed, only cause them to linger longer as they negotiate the metalwork, making the situation worse. It may be there, of course, to stop customers, hysterical at future increases in the cost of postage, hurtling out of the Post Office and throwing themselves in front of passing traffic. No, this can't be it, since the traffic outside the Post Office is mainly at a standstill. What might help traffic flow, would be a small reduction in the width of the pavement in front of the Post Office, say by about 18 inches -- at least 18 inches to two feet have already been sacrificed for the railings. It would not be missed, since the pavement is extra wide at that point anyway. This would not prevent cars from stopping but it would at least mean that the rest of the traffic could move by more easily. This is our money that is being frittered away - 16 weeks of pavement rage coming up - and I don't want to hear that it involves "a different budget". Regardless of who pretends to be paying for these grand schemes, all the monies have been taken from our pockets and I think they could be spent more usefully elsewhere - like filling the potholes in the other pavements and roads perhaps? GRAHAM PHIMISTER, Browning Road, Harpenden.