Issue with A7 is with drivers’ speed, not the bends in road
As the westmost resident in Berwickshire, the A7 has been my ready way in and out of the Borders for more than 40 years. I mean no disrespect to the A7 Action Group, but I found Councillor Aitchison’s views in last week’s Southern and on Radio Scotland about the bends between Middleton Moor and Galashiels both uninformed and misdirected, for it is the chosen speed of the driver which is critical. I have walked it both ways from Fountainhall to Galashiels and driven it by bicycle, quad, scooter, cars and trucks. The camber at every corner has been studiously designed and expertly executed. Surely, it is not just the archeologists who can admire the skills of bygone artisans, and for the begging Councillor to throw in an inference that those of us who can shoot the chicanes in little saloons are better than Jackie Stewart, is terrible chicanery.
Some two years ago there was a call for a 50mph limit on this route, since when I have adopted that as my general guide and it has been highly educative, most especially that this should be an elastic optimum rather than a strict limit.
Almost all who may fall in behind me seem to appreciate the common sense of this optimum, going by the very few who quit the queue to accelerate past at the famous obvious passing stretches.
It just needs more and more of us calmly mentoring the followers to steadily and safely acclimatise the strangers and civilise the regulars.
John Milligan, Clintz Cottage, Lauder
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Weather for Selkirk
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
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Temperature: 5 C to 17 C
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