IT COMES as no surprise to me to read that City of York Council officers voiced concerns internally about the design details of the Coppergate scheme (The Press, July 22).

However, I suspect that the elephant in the room may be the Department for Transport (DfT) signage regulations, allied to highways legislation. Local authorities need clear and unambiguous guidance, rather than “grey” areas of interpretation, so that public transport priority measures can be implemented with confidence across the country.

If Oxford and York try to do the same thing and end up doing it differently, then there is clearly a need for harmonisation at Parliamentary level.

There seems to be continued support by councillors for Coppergate’s intended role as a public transport corridor. I fully support this stance.

Giving bus passengers and cyclists a degree of artificial priority often gets them to their destination faster than if they had travelled by car, and helps to underpin the strategy which is embodied in York’s current Local Transport Plan, to further reduce car dependency.

The council might also usefully consider creating a right turn into Coppergate from Clifford Street for cyclists only.

This will create a practicable link between the riverside cycle route via Tower Gardens and the Piccadilly area.

Longer term, this could be replaced by a once-mooted cycle bridge across the Foss in the Clifford’s Tower area.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, Holgate, York