SO now we know. The cost to council taxpayers in York of the botched Lendal Bridge trial is £760,000... and counting. Because of the ongoing cost of refunding the £1.3 million in fines that were imposed, the bill could yet rise higher.

What a tragic waste of taxpayers' money, at a time when budgets are being squeezed and vital services slashed.

Much of the wasted money has come from the council's revenue budget, or from funding for buses and local transport.

As opposition councillors point out, it could have been spent on repairing potholes or improving bus services or road safety.

Instead, it has gone on a scheme which achieved nothing except to alienate York people –and do huge damage to this city's reputation as a tourist destination. How many of the 55,000 motorists who were wrongly fined were visitors who will never return? We will probably never know.

The real tragedy is that, had the trial been handled properly, there may well have been many people in York who would have come to accept the closure of Lendal Bridge.

Unfortunately, those who promoted it often seemed too zealous and obstinate. Long before the trial collapsed, it was clear they had failed to carry public opinion with them.

Following this expensive disaster, it would be a brave politician who would even think of suggesting such a radical congestion-busting measure in York in the near future.

Yet something urgently needs to be done to tackle congestion in the city. With Labour's Congestion Commission now also hitting delays, we are looking seriously short on ideas.

A legacy of chronic, continuing congestion may yet, in the long run, be the worst legacy of the whole sorry Lendal Bridge affair.