I HAVE a long-standing gripe about the state of the road mark- ings on the so-called Pink Eye roundabout at the end of Sankey W a y.

As one of the main gateways to the town, I think it is an absolute dis- grace the road markings have been allowed to wear away and have not been repainted.

On some parts, they are so faint they are almost invisible.

The roundabout is difficult enough to negotiate without the added prob- lems of not being able to see which lane you are in.

I found it interesting, then, when drivers took to social media last week to complain about not knowing which lane to get in if they wanted to go down Old Liverpool Road.

There’s no problem for anyone coming out of town as there is a clearly marked ‘left turn only’ lane but come from any other direction and you take your life in your hands.

Stick with me on this.

If you drive down Lovely Lane, when you reach the Pink Eye round- about, you have the choice of four lanes.

Lane one, the left hand lane, is for traffic going down Priestley Street.

Lane four, the far right hand lane, is for traffic going right round the roundabout to the Sankey Way dual carriageway.

Lane two (second from left) is pa- tently for cars going towards the town centre.

Which sort of leaves lane three for traffic wanting to go down Old Liver - pool Road or maybe just to the new Lidl. That’s all well and good apart from the fact the road markings indi- cate lane three is for the town centre.

As a regular user of this particu- lar roundabout, I simply ignore the markings, get in lane three and go. (And what’s more, I know I’m right.) But I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been cut up by people who suddenly realise they’ve fol- lowed the road markings, ended up in the wrong lane and dived across.

Seems we can’t win.

And it’s a lottery getting in the right lane for traffic joining the rounda - bout from Old Liverpool Road.

The sections of the roundabout without markings are dangerous and yet the sections with markings are more dangerous.

I notice the council has said it’s go- ing to repaint the lines next year. I would respectfully suggest the prob- lem is a little more urgent than that.

n HOW do you define old age? What is the magic birthday that sees you crossing from the bliss of middle age to the wasteland of being old?

I was horrified this week when I spotted a self-help book in one of the town’s libraries.

It was helpfully entitled something like ‘The internet for the over 50s’ and had a sub heading ‘Helping the elderly to understand the world wide web’.

So the authors consider anyone aged over 50 to be elderly.

Being completely honest, my 50th birthday was many moons ago but I hardly consider myself elderly.

I still have a full head of hair (just about), most of my own teeth and I’m in a full-time job.

And I consider myself to be fairly technically able – this article was written on my laptop after wirelessly connecting to a remote network.

A little research reveals that most developed-world countries have ac- cepted the chronological age of 65 as a definition of ‘elderly’ or older per - son. The United Nations has agreed that 60 plus may be usually denoted as old age.

And this country thinks it’s per - fectly acceptable to continue to put up the age at which you can draw your state old age pension.

I keep on reading about well-mean- ing but ultimately misguided volun- teer courses to help the over-50s.

I say these are misguided because they reinforce the perception that anyone over 50 is over the hill.

I would beg to differ and would also like to point out it is against the The Equality Act 2010 to discriminate against people in the workplace be- cause of age.

Maybe it’s time to stop treating those over the age of 50 as old people and simply as people.