Cyclists Sarah Doone and Victoria Lebrec each lost a leg in Old Street crashes

• I WAS delighted to read about Islington Council’s plans to close the Finsbury section of Clerkenwell Road/Old Street to through traffic, apart from walkers, cyclists and public transport.

As you point out (Safety plea by cyclists facing life with one leg, March 22), this will have excellent consequences for public safety and the fight against air pollution.

There is another factor, too. People have noticed that roads and streets are being continually dug up to repair fractured public services such as water mains.

The fractures are caused by heavy goods vehicles travelling straight from motorways onto inner-city roads and streets which were not built to take them.

The damage done by a vehicle to a road or street and to whatever lies underneath it is directly proportional to the fourth power of the axle weight of the vehicle: 10 times the axle weight, 10,000 times the damage.

If something needs to be transported it should go by rail, which is practically danger-free, pollution-free and damage-free.

Before long Crossrail will be opening through Finsbury. Finsbury will show the way for replacing road by rail all over Britain.

IVOR KENNA
Acting convener,
The Finsbury Forum