RUSH-hour traffic problems in the east of Ipswich are getting increasingly serious, causing nightly tailbacks well back on to the A14.Now that work is taking place on the St Augustine's roundabout these problems have increased substantially - and now this part of town faces increasingly long queues every weekend afternoon.

RUSH-hour traffic problems in the east of Ipswich are getting increasingly serious, causing nightly tailbacks well back on to the A14.

Now that work is taking place on the St Augustine's roundabout these problems have increased substantially - and now this part of town faces increasingly long queues every weekend afternoon.

With work now starting on the Orwell Bridge, and the possibility of full-time lane closures there later this year, the prospects for anyone heading home towards Nacton or Ravenswood are indeed daunting.

It is the roadworks at St Augustine's that has highlighted the problem, but the long-term issue that has to be addressed is the state of the junction between the A14 and Nacton Road.

It may have been sufficient when the new road was designed and built in the early 1980s, but with the growth of Ravenswood and the industrial and retail estates on the former Ransomes site the junction has now become totally inadequate.

Traffic heading at 70mph towards Felixstowe along the A14 is faced with long queues as it comes off the Orwell Bridge, long before any warnings of queuing traffic can be seen.

This situation is bound to get worse as more development happens at the eastern end of the town.

What is needed is a total rethink of the junctions to ensure that traffic continues to flow at the busiest times of the day. There needs to be particular care given to the road layout at Ravenswood where more than 1,000 households use a single roundabout to get to and from their homes.

But any work to remodel the junctions must be carefully thought out - otherwise there could be yet more disruption for no great gain.

LAST year's tragic deaths of Jose Costa and Erica Andrade on the A14 shows just how vital it is to ensure everyone in a car is correctly wearing a seat belt at all time.

Adalberto Conde was yesterday fined for failing to ensure that Erica was not properly belted up, but the real punishment for him is knowing that he was at the wheel of an accident in which two people died.

That is a punishment that will stay with him for the rest of his life - and the lesson he learned so painfully is one that people across the area should bear in mind the next time they get in the car.

PIGS have often been described as being among the world's most intelligent animals, and the behaviour of Prudence at the Baylham Rare Breeds Farm would certainly underline that.

When her piglets needed sunscreen to protect their skins she delighted visitors by showing exactly how pigs make their own mudbath.

Now you can share in her antics by seeing how Prudence went about cooling down her brood - see the amazing video at www.eveningstar.co.uk