I HAVE just read yet another letter from John Thompson (Third crossing debate, July 4) and unfortunately he is missing the point.If he was around on any of the days recently when the bascule bridge was closed due to over running repairs he will have noticed that the town virtually came to a stop.

I HAVE just read yet another letter from John Thompson (Third crossing debate, July 4) and unfortunately he is missing the point.

If he was around on any of the days recently when the bascule bridge was closed due to over running repairs he will have noticed that the town virtually came to a stop. It was absolutely nothing to do with the points which Mr Thompson claims to have proved with evidence, which came from goodness knows where, and which is irrelevant.

The town needs a third crossing for the simple reason that it needs to survive.

We currently have two crossings and if one gives up for any length of time large parts of the town will die. And we can't go on patching up the existing structures for ever, they will have to be replaced, so what will happen for the several months (years) while that is being done? I hate to think, unless we have a third crossing in place.

I would be interested to hear the evidence he has to prove that if I made one less car journey per week traffic would reduce by 10pc. And I could only do it by giving up one of life's little pleasures, such as going to work.

Public transport just does not go from where I start to where I finish in a manner which would not change a 10 minute journey into an impracticable one hour one, assuming the buses ran at a time I wanted to make the journey.

How anyone can continue to argue that Lowestoft does not need a third crossing is quite beyond me.

What did occur to me recently, reading our MP's suggestion that someone should sue the contractors when they over run, was that maybe it would be more appropriate to sue our politicians who have buried their heads in the sand and turned down the third crossing since I believe the idea was first suggested in around 1930.

DAVID HANNANT

The Avenue

Lowestoft