Should we save space for cars? (From York Press)

Should we save space for cars?

9:59am Saturday 3rd July 2010 in

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THE Monks Cross shopping park has been a great success but only just copes with the car parking level it has at present (The Press, July 1).

During busy periods, one can drive around for a while waiting for a space to become vacant. So the proposal to reduce this facility by 54 spaces while at the same time expanding the complex will create big problems. By all means let’s have a major jobs boost, but we need the parking facilities to go with it. To approve additional facilities while at the same time reducing parking spaces will turn out to be yet another monumental planning blunder that we can all do without.

Matthew Laverack, Chartered architect, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.

• A COUNCIL road safety leaflet has just come through my letterbox called Safety On York Roads.

It’s all about what cyclists and pedestrians can do to protect themselves from the failed observation of drivers.

I look forward to the next leaflet telling drivers about their responsibility to look out for pedestrian crossings, give way to cyclists who are on the major road and consider the safety of the “vulnerable road users” as more important than an extra 20 seconds on their journey.

At the Car Free Cities conference, there was a fascinating talk entitled The Quick And The Dead: A History Of The Pedestrian, documenting the 90-year transition of our streets from spaces belonging to people to zones ruled by the motor car.

Then at the presentation of the Design Awards, Professor Alan Simpson, who is leading the Renaissance work on creating an economic vision and master plan, stated that for York to be a great city we should be greening the city and get rid of the private motor car from its heart.

Now there’s a challenge!

Coun Andy D’Agorne, York Green Party, Broadway West, York.