I have read with interest the views and experiences of car users and cyclists who use Lewes Road.

In an attempt to balance these views I would like to give the facts from the most environmentally- friendly users of these changes. No, please get back on your bikes, it is not you – it is us, the pedestrians.

The following are a list of findings based on facts from walking this area for many years before the alteration, the many weeks that have passed while suffering the disruption of the roadworks and now the weeks that the new scheme has been in place.

1) The central islands that we used for many, many years to safely cross the road have been dug up and turned into car lanes. In places it is now very dangerous to cross the road where before it was safe.

2) The wildflower central verges have been reduced by a meter each side and turned into Tarmac to accommodate the bus, car and cycle lanes, which is detrimental to the aesthetics of the area.

3) The lovely herbaceous boarders at the bottom of The Avenue have been grassed over because, in the words of a council officer, “there is not any money left to maintain them”.

4) The re-phasing of the pedestrian crossing points leaves one stranded in the middle to guess if the lights have malfunctioned.

5) The red lights show to stop the traffic and then the green light shows for the pedestrian to cross, but cyclists take no notice and ride past crossing pedestrians.

6) The cyclists use the bus stop lanes as a convenient place to ride up on to the pavement and through pedestrians to avoiding the junctions.

7) The back residential streets have been turned into rat-runs from traffic avoiding Lewes Road, causing a danger to residents and children who live in these areas.

Due to a disability I can’t ride a bike. If I had the finances, I could buy an electric car but the increase in the time it takes to get along the Lewes Road means the batteries would run out before I got anywhere.

I could catch the bus but, despite the public money spent on putting in a bus lane, we have been rewarded with fare increases. As such, this is no longer an option for me.

Let this be a calling to my fellow citizens, especially those who live near Seven Dials: things for us can’t get any worse but you have yet to be subjected to the Green changes.

Whatever reassurances you are given by so-called Green representatives, cycle groups who have also decided they know what is best for the pedestrian or council officials, take them all with a bit of pumpkin pie.

It would seem the Greens have given us a few tricks over the past two years but no treats.

Happy Halloween from a very let-down pedestrian.

Bill Gandey, Plymouth Avenue, Brighton