As a fellow member of the Labour Party I share Richard Bridge’s disappointment that the Lendal Bridge fines fiasco is going to drag on (Letters, August 29).

I can’t understand why this Labour administration ignores the moral necessity of repaying: by agreeing to reimburse some motorists, the council has conceded it has no right to retain any Lendal Bridge fines.

If pocketing some fines is not illegal, it is certainly immoral. And it is outrageous that the responsibility for recovering their own money should be passed on to people not all of whom have the means or ability to submit a claim.

Most of the drivers affected are ordinary people of modest means – the very people a Labour administration should be supporting. But at the Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee last Wednesday, I heard Cllr David Levene appear to suggest that a £35 fine was trivial – how out of touch with ordinary people trying to make ends meet can a Labour cabinet member get?

James Alexander must recognise the damage this saga is doing to the administration and to the Labour Party. I hope he will take the right moral course and repay the fines now, before he is forced to nearer the elections.

Colin Hall, Tower Place, York.