As a new Lidl store is poised to open, shoehorned into the Lower High Street near Bushey Arches - is there any limit to the level of development the council nods through?

The region is already close to gridlock at the best of times.

Cramming in a busy discount supermarket will surely add further chaos.

Bushey Arches is already a bottleneck yet more and more housing development has been tightly packed into it.

The net result will see traffic grind to a complete standstill. With engines idling, exhausts fuming, pollution will soar.

In the very least, bus lanes need to be installed pretty quick to give priority to socially responsible public transport users not to mention emergency vehicles. What use is a fire station barely a hundred yards up when the main road will be quite probably impassable? How did that get through the health and safety net?

When do council planners make these dozy decisions - after a Friday lunchtime’s boozing down the pub?

Giving the green light to this scale of development, be it residential - or commercial - is not just unsustainable, it is negligent and dangerous.

Dave Degen

Watford