We’ve just had the annual street fair, which blocks off Abingdon for two-plus days a year.

The organiser said there were “no problems at all”. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? I needed to get into Abingdon, Monday tea-time and what an absolute nightmare. Massive traffic jams, huge queues pumping out extra carbon monoxide and when I finally got close to where I needed, I had to pass by a collection of trucks belching diesel fumes to keep the fair generators going.

We’re told the fair is “traditional”. Yes, so was bear-baiting and sending kids up chimneys at one time, and they’ve all gone now. This is 2011, not 1511 and the old purpose of the fairs is long gone. There are plenty of open spaces round Abingdon that would be a more suitable location, so it’s time to end this nonsense. Abingdon rush-hour traffic is usually pretty hopeless but the blockage by the fair is ridiculous. I spoke to a postman trying to make evening collections and what he said about it couldn’t be repeated.

Oh, by the way, just who pays for the traffic changes, for the extra clean-up and to compensate businesses for their lost trade?

Has anyone calculated the extra pollution caused? In recent times there’s been a massive push from Government and councils trying to make us “greener” and to radically improve the amount of recycling we all do. I’d guess that the extra pollution is undoing a fair amount of that benefit.

TONY HOLMES, Whitehorns Way, Drayton