YET again we have been subjected to more deluded anti-car rubbish from Paul Hepworth and Jim McGurn (Letters, February 20).

The reason for Water End becoming more congested again is because of the lunatic closure of Lendal Bridge.

The reduction to single lane on Water End was a complete disaster which was only partly corrected.

It is about time cyclists realised the roads do not belong solely to them and the rules of the Highway Code apply to them just as much as motorists.

Most people in York own and run a car and have paid a lot of money to do so, and are not going to be told how to get around by anti-car dictators who seem to think owning a car is a crime.

How would you like it if you had bought an expensive new bike only to be told you couldn’t use it?

The only way forward is for the A1237 to be dualled, railway stations opened at Haxby, Strensall and Copmanthorpe – and get rid of congestion-causing bendy buses, along with the NRM’S road train.

Ian Foster, Hawthorne Avenue, Haxby, York.
 

• PAUL HEPWORTH implies that the reinstallation of the filter lane at Clifton Green lights has been a failure due to the still significant vehicle queues along Water End.

The reason for the empty filter lane at the lights and still significant queues are due to the concrete ramp left in place at the end of the cycle path that blocks the road, thus stopping traffic from getting into the filter lane to turn right.

Tony Feetenby, Burdyke Avenue, Clifton, York.


• A NUMBER of activists in York are constantly campaigning. I am sure they have our best interests at heart, but they are not listening.

Jim McGurn’s letter of February 20 refers to “the small number of reactionary gentlemen who write sneering letters”. Does he not read the letters page objectively and note that the “few” who criticise the closing of Lendal Bridge to traffic far outnumber those in favour?

Similarly, Paul Hepworth states that the reversal of the nonsensical alteration to the traffic system at Clifton Green has not changed the congestion.

Actually, the congestion was halved at a stroke and it is only since the council tinkered with Lendal Bridge that the waiting returned.

I am not against cycling for those who want it. But judging by the emptiness of the cycle lanes, there are not so many. So why spend so much?

Coun Dave Merrett seems intent on pushing us on to buses. Buses are expensive and take large subsidies from council coffers. Parking charges are high in York, but even so it is often cheaper to drive in than catch a bus.

Coun Anna Semlyen is convinced we all want 20mph limits when it is obvious the vast majority think it unnecessary.

Bob Redwood, Main Street, Askham Bryan, York.

 

• JIM MCGURN states that only a small number of reactionary gentleman write against the closure of Lendal Bridge. Well, he is wrong again (as everyone is from the cycling world).

Such people think that banning all cars and lorries would make the world a better place. Well, how would people go shopping and how would deliveries be made?

Most people in York are against the closure of Lendal Bridge.

Here is what City of York Council should do. Reopen all the railway stations and track around York so people have other ways into the city and then have a congestion charge to pay for them if they drive in.

That’s the way forward. People won’t complain if there are other ways to get into York. If the station at Haxby was reopened, I would use it all the time.

That is forward planning, not what the council is doing now.

Mark Ringrose, Hawthorn Avenue, Haxby.