In guidebooks there used to be warnings to beware of bandits and highwaymen on the road.

Perhaps York needs an updated version to warn travellers about the consequences and costs of driving over bridges.

Now everything is done anonymously. They shoot you with hidden cameras, send the demands and threats through the post two weeks later, and to make sure no one in York is involved ask for payment to be sent to a PO Box in Northampton.

If you ring the council you get an automated voice listing the reasons they will not accept for a mistake you’ve made due to living 50 miles away, not knowing the precise time of day (it was, they tell me 4.50pm) or the name of a bridge which they insist is closed despite the fact that it is clearly open.

If this measure is to discourage driving in York, well done! I shall henceforth be driving to Harrogate.

T Lunt, Seymour Walk, Meltham, Holmfirth.