AS a county councillor in another county I can sympathise with the frustration for all councillors and the local residents at the cancellation of the road scheme at Stonehenge.

Although my wife spent some of her childhood in Salisbury and her mother still lives nearby, with my own family connected with Cornwall, I write as a regular user of the A303 over many years.

My suggestion would be that if much (or perhaps even all) of the revenue funding could be raised in the form of road tolls charged to passers-through, such as myself, then this would create an income stream against which long term capital for the reconstruction of the A303 could be raised.

I am reminded that years ago my father, who was then one of the local MP's in Cornwall, was approached to support the building of a new road bridge across the Tamar at Plymouth.

After enquiry, he advised and advocated that the only chance of doing so at that time was with a toll bridge (and at the cost of considerable local unpopularity).

After a while the local county council and the other local interests bit the bullet and agreed to a toll bridge at the then unheard of price set at half a crown a trip.

From that point, the construction of the bridge surged ahead, never looking back and it was actually unnecessary to increase the toll charge for years.

I appreciate the circumstances of the Tamar Estuary and the A303 at Stonehenge are rather different and I would think that special arrangements would have to be made to meet the access expectations of immediate local residents.

However, for myself as a non- resident, I would be quite prepared to pay a set price for the benefit of a safe and free-flowing route past Stonehenge on my way down to holidays in the West Country.

HUGH WILSON, Chesham, Buckinghamshire