LIKE Robert Street said in his letter, I was disappointed with the response from Cllr Val Letheren's stock response to road safety.

And at the same time saddened to hear of yet another death in Valley Road near the church.

If Ms Letheren is so keen on reducing casualties surely she should be pressing for the authorities to improve the road conditions in accident black spots such as Valley Road and the A404 Amersham Road between Hazlemere and Amersham.

In 15 years there has been no lI SHUDDER to think of how Tesco, contracting engineers plus inspectors allowed those plans for a tunnel in Gerrards Cross to go ahead.

Trains, because of their weight, set up rhythmic vibrations that will crack open almost any structure, particularly should there be any joints in the rails under and near the tunnel to compound the problem.

Welded rails on that section do help to alleviate this particular difficulty. Beyond that problem tunnels must be lined with steel sheet, usually ships plate bent in an arc and then reinforcing matt welded to the steel to leave a gap (for the concrete) and the whole covered in more concrete of that necessary thickness to support any surface structures.

Safely is never cheap except when it is seen to work, like Victorian tunnels over a long period with the minimum amount of maintenance.

Wooden sleepers absorb some of the vibrations whereas concrete sleepers tend to shift the stress directed into the surroundings area of any given railway track.

In addition to all this there have been mild earthquakes earth tremors in this area more recently and because I live directly above a geological stress line I feel them from time to time whereas my neighbours don't.

There was yet another mild one a couple of weeks ago, believe this or not, which may have weakened the structure.

A Valentine Roebuck Avenue High Wycombe HUBRIS the dictionary definition is "ambition ultimately causing the transgressor's ruin".

That seems to me to be a perfect definition of Tesco's apparent desire to milk the rich area of Gerrards Cross at any cost.

That cost will now be borne by the contractors, who may be driven to the wall, the long suffering commuters and Chiltern Railways which had nothing to gain from the whole exercise anyway. Tesco was behind the whole idea of building over a non-existent space, and they must not escape public, official comment in this sorry fiasco.

Kate Phillips Pinewood Road Sands Roads concern LIKE Robert Street said in his letter, I was disappointed with the response from Cllr Val Letheren's stock response to road safety.

And at the same time saddened to hear of yet another death in Valley Road near the church.

If Ms Letheren is so keen on reducing casualties surely she should be pressing for the authorities to improve the road conditions in accident black spots such as Valley Road and the A404 Amersham Road between Hazlemere and Amersham.

In 15 years there has been no work that I know of carried out on Valley Road to improve safety, despite the high level of deaths and injuries. It seems that the authorities do not want to spend money on making roads safer.

Instead they find it preferable to focus police resources on manning speed traps which generate plenty of money instead.

Jules Birch, High Wycombe