IT’S disappointing yet unsurprising that Julian Sturdy seeks to make political capital out of the council reopening Lendal Bridge for the TUC march past the Barbican Centre (The Press, March 20).

This was agreed without any councillor involvement by the police and the council’s traffic manager, who I quote: “We were advised by the police that there would be significant numbers of people on a section of the Inner Ring Road which would need to be closed for a period of time during the event for public safety reasons.

“The route of the march was discussed with the police and amended to minimise disruption, but it was not possible to make changes to the section of the route by the Barbican Centre.

“To minimise the consequential delay to travellers and reduce the safety risk to the marchers, it was decided to lift the restrictions on Lendal Bridge.

“The network management team consider the impact of events and highway works on a regular basis. Each event is considered on its merits and consideration given to ways to minimise disruption to travellers where possible.

“In this particular case, removing the restriction on Lendal Bridge was considered to be an appropriate intervention to reduce the impact of the event.”

Councillor Dave Merrett, Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Sustainability.