AN EXPERT in infrastructure and transport projects is to lead a panel looking for solutions to York’s traffic problems, councillors have decided.

The City of York Council’s cabinet last night voted through plans to appoint Terry Hill as chairman of the Congestion Commission, and to spend £135,000 bringing experts in to look at transport in York, despite objections from many other councillors.

Members from the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green groups, as well as independent councillors, all spoke up against spending large sums of money on outside experts.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Ann Reid said that while they supported cross-party working, they could not agree that £135,000 was value for money; while Green party councillor Andy D’Agorne said it would be wiser to wait until after the election when party politics may not play such a big role.

But Labour’s Tracey Simpson-Laing said that after talking about congestion as a problem for more than a decade, the city needs expert advice not more discussions between councillors.

Council leader Dafydd Williams added: “If we keep having this paucity of ambition and keep having small discussions among ourselves, we are quite literally never going to get anywhere. In the grand scheme of things, £135,000 is not a lot set against the costs of congestion.”