The revelation that legal costs relating to Lendal Bridge and Coppergate totalled £15,000 will anger many residents (The Press 13th August).
As you rightly point out in your editorial this was a “self-inflicted pickle” that the previous Labour Council got itself into and ensuring that the schemes were legally “watertight” beforehand would have avoided this cost.
The blame for this sits with the previous Labour Cabinet.
It is perhaps worth quoting the report from Crown Management Solutions on the Lendal Bridge trial from June 2014. This said that the scheme was "driven by political ambition" with the Labour Cabinet Member at the time having "effectively behaved as the project manager".
The report said this led to a "culture of pressurised and directive decision making" and "highly nervous" council officers had raised "legal and political concerns" which were ignored.
The new Executive is determined to avoid the mistakes of the past. Instead we need legal and evidence-based methods to tackle congestion in the city. York cannot afford the financial (yet alone the reputational) cost of another Lendal Bridge debacle.
Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Transport,
Grassholme, Woodthorpe, York
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