THE refusal of planning permission, to build 500 homes on the old sewage works site at Wycombe Marsh, was made for various reasons (BFP, December 16), including the lack of adequate transport.

The proposed new access road from the site on to the London Road, High Wycombe, would not solve this problem, but would assist a further 500 or so cars from the site to join the well-known congestion on the London Road and along the Wye Valley.

London Road now carries 28,000 vehicles a day and the Wye Valley route is used daily by many of the 25,500 commuters between Wycombe district and the Thames Valley.

These drivers have little choice but to add their cars to the time wasting congestion, because there is no effective public transport.

Hence what is required is public transport that does not use these roads and enjoys a wide reputation, here and abroad, for being able to persuade a significant number of drivers to switch to it.

Also it must be energy efficient, so as to produce minimum CO2 emissions, because of the dangers of climate change so clearly stated at the Montreal conference.

Light rail generally meets these requirements much more successfully than buses, so it is fortunate that the disused track of the High Wycombe/Bourne End Rail Link, closed 1970, ran close to the sewage works site, but along the southern side of Bassetsbury Lane.

That section of the track has been built over but the proposed sewage works development on the north side of the Lane offers the opportunity for a simple diversion.

This would require a less than six-metre wide strip of land for a double track across the 12-acre site.

It could provide the new residents, and thousands of others, with a fast, frequent, unobtrusive light rail service to the station and town centre, to homes, businesses and schools near to the London Road and along the Wye Valley, and to the Thames Valley, to join the First Great Western rail services, local and long distance, at Maidenhead.

A type of light rail now available is called Ultra Light Rail (ULR).

It is non-polluting, very quiet, unobtrusive (no overhead power lines) and easily accessed.

It has a top speed of 40mph, is very energy efficient, and is much cheaper than conventional light rail.

A single ULR vehicle could carry 50 passengers the ten miles between Wycombe and Maidenhead stations using the equivalent of 0.7 gallons of fuel (much less than 50 cars!).

Two such vehicles can be linked together for peak time loadings.

Dr Elsa Woodward, Transport Group, The High Wycombe Society, The Haystacks, High Wycombe