WHERE were the senior executives? Colin Richardson (Letters, July 22) quite rightly suggests that the planning and implementation of the Lendal Bridge fiasco would be the responsibility of the professional senior executives of the council.

This does not mean that James Alexander, Dave Merrett and other members of the council can distance themselves from the reality of decisions made. They are accountable to the electorate, particularly when unnecessary costs are incurred at a time of cut-backs. Do any of our leaders or officers ever admit that mistakes have been made?

We must all admit that congestion in our city centre will have to be addressed as a matter of urgency, but all interests in the grand debate, such as tourism, retailing, council taxpayers and others should have the opportunity to have their say with regard to any new proposals.

It appears that the Labour leader and his party have been determined to “go it alone” on several issues without consultation with interested parties, and lessons should be learnt from this.

Compromise, coupled to listening to the views of others, is an important ingredient of successful negotiation.

Ian Collinson, Longridge Lane, Nether Poppleton, York.