I walked along Stonegate recently. Our Conservative-led council has a mindset more appropriate to running a third-world village than an important UK city. I am unable to understand how this idea was given any credence at all. It should certainly never have been implemented.

These people know the cost of everything but do not understand the concept of value nor, apparently, civic pride.

K.Powdrell, Springfield Court,York

Anyone who walks or cycles into York along one of its main arteries at about 8am in the morning will have experienced what I am about to say. It is nothing new.

From the taxis ticking over in the station car park through to Lendal Bridge (which you can’t cross on a bike at that time of morning), up past Exhibition Square and down Gillygate, the congestion, pollution and air quality is seriously shocking.

I know that due to the appalling implementation of the Lendal Bridge trial, any serious attempts to address congestion in the city centre are considered a political risk too far.

Nevertheless, it damages and spoils York’s public realm for both its residents and visitors as well as forming a serious health risk. Just because poor air quality is not as visible as other health issues doesn’t mean to say it should be ignored.

So for the benefit of everyone, all parties surely have a duty to put their differences aside and work out a way to address the city centre pollution (and not just Lendal Bridge). To fail to do so is a dereliction of their duty of care to York’s residents.

Richard Bridge, Holgate Road York

IN PAUL Hepworth’s recent letter he answered motorists’ views on traffic lights being turned off. He said D McTernan must be only basing that on being behind the wheel, and what about the pedestrians trying to cross? D McTernan went on to quote everything Paul has said in the past but he did not answer the content, which was ‘what about the pedestrians?’ The problem with congestion is the motorist.

How many take their car out but don’t really need to?

Dave Dunford, Heworth Green, York

WHEN is someone going to come up with an original, innovative use for vacant premises in York?

Right on the heels of Cosy Club coming to Fossgate we now have four more eateries planned.

Do we really need a 148-seater restaurant in St Helen’s Square, a cocktail bar and a restaurant in Stonegate and a diner in Coney Street planning to be open from 8am to 12.30am?

If the previous occupants of the old Café Rouge site couldn’t make it a profitable enterprise then it doesn’t bode well for anyone else. As more applications for these kind of businesses are submitted, as they undoubtedly will be, it is surely time for someone on the council to say “No – enough is enough”.

P Witlea, De Grey Place, Bishopthorpe York

I must reply to Jason Brown’s letter about academies.

Firstly he states that schools cannot be privatised. Privatised is possibly not the correct word to use, but academy chains can be sponsored by corporate companies. This allows them access to funds from government and they can spend these funds on themselves using the umbrella of consultation or by raising their own salary levels.

The heads of these chains can set their own salaries. The Institute of Chartered Accountants have warned that academies can exploit public funding as they as they are not audited by the Department of Education.

Secondly academies are not free of government interference.

They are judged using the same league tables as local authority schools. They are freed from teaching the national curriculum, but do not broaden the curriculum.

At secondary level there is often a narrowing of the curriculum - fewer art and technology subjects - to concentrate on English, maths and other subjects in the government’s progress 8 measures.

Thirdly he states they get better results. Not always. Converter academies that are previously good schools show no improvement. Sponsored academies, previously poor schools, do show a slight improvement in results in maths and English as students are taken out of other subjects to improve these.

My worry is the experience of being a student in academy schools.

They can too easily become exam factories focusing on league table results rather than on producing well-rounded and balanced pupils.

Dave Bannister, South Bank Avenue, South Bank, York