Dear editor:

I cannot but help send in this letter, even as an outsider, from neighbouring St. Catharines.

I read Niagara Now/The Lake Report regularly. It is surely one of the best local media outlets going.

I love Brian Marshall’s regular column on heritage-related themes. More so, as a senior and public historian myself, I look to all the articles on NOTL’s beautiful historic town.

For over 50 years, we have driven visitors and guests from abroad to see NOTL, to go to the Shaw, whatever. We have also lived for over a decade in Britain and are familiar with useful roundabouts.

I noted a recent letter to the editor of the St. Catharines Standard, noting the ever-ending fracas between townspeople and developers.

Many will agree, even those from outside NOTL, that the developers and council supporters of the same have made a right mess of things. NOTL is a kind of star in Niagara for its Old Town, now under pressure from development.

This brings me to roundabouts and their usefulness. When done correctly, they do move traffic successfully.

I despair when I see the collision of voices regarding the St. Davids proposed roundabout as opposed to simple stop lights.

It appears that many private properties will lose some land with what the region has planned. Such a simple intersection, too.

We are so appalled already at the mess some engineers have made of the Glendale-QEW intersection. What were they thinking?

It is so frightening to take guests to NOTL from St. Catharines that we will no longer take guests that way.

We will stay with the old way of going over the canal at Homer and Hwy 55 in the future. Or even, for us, a much longer route — the Lakeshore Rd route. Whatever it takes to avoid that convoluted roundabout at the Glendale-QEW.

It appears to have been created to please hotel owners and future development plans for the many condo towers planned at that site.

Gail Benjafield
St. Catharines