safety. The intersection is unsafe. Police statistics prove that. The reason it is unsafe is that we have an uncontrolled junction complicated by the fact that dozens of cars back out of various businesses into the South Shore Road traffic stream.

Drivers backing out must look to both left and right and then behind and many times the traffic overtakes their sight lines. That is all compounded by heavy pedestrian use of the areas in front of the businesses, by a bus stop, a bank machine, two churches and a gas station just to the west.

Complaints over Collector's Hill have gone on for a long time. What we have there now is a mini-business centre with very confused vehicular access. They are also high traffic businesses in the form of a drug store, a video rental shop, a restaurant and a drug store. The truth is that this "village'' should not have been allowed by the Planning Department to develop without a traffic plan, but it did develop. From the point of view of the businesses, the problem should be solved because the traffic snarl now causes many people to skip the area rather than struggle with the parking. We think that with convenience and safety will come increased business.

The new safety plan calls for a sidewalk between the Collector's Hill Apothecary and the Cottage Bakery, providing for parking beside or behind businesses. This is designed to eliminate vehicles backing into South Shore Road traffic and to prevent people walking out into the traffic to get to their cars. It will also provide a pedestrian way for people wishing to use more than one of the businesses.

It now seems that exceptions may be made for the A-1 grocery. The A-1 grocery is east of the intersection and was the first business there but that is no reason for an exemption if it damages the new parking system. It may be that arrangements can be made so that A-1 patrons are not inconvenienced but that must not be done at the expense of safety. The scheme needs to be considered as a whole. Public safety has to be the main consideration.

It has taken a very long time to get around to solving this problem and there have been a great many complaints. The public recognised the dangers but it seems to have taken a Smith's South UBP primary to get the message through.

That goes to show that canvassing can be beneficial to the public. Not much was happening before that.

The problem should be solved before someone is killed. Let's not get into dangerous compromises and let's solve the problem once and for all.