I have followed events on local radio and in the Evening Press on the traffic trial for York's recent Ebor race meeting. I even obtained details of the legislation used to close the roads.

I have listened patiently to councillors telling us it's for our benefit and what a success it was.

I don't live on Planet Ascot. I have a few questions for the authorities:

Why when they spend all year placing obstructions to our movement by car, do they suddenly embrace with welcome arms the influx of cars and traffic to the racecourse? Don't they pollute like ours or is that only a fault of the local community charge-payers?

Why, when I pay my charges (extremely high as they are), do I have to pay extra to park in my own city yet those who pay nothing come in and park free of charge at the races?

How much did the council raise from the city car parks between August 17-19 and how many cars, coaches etc parked for free at the races?

Why, as a rate-payer, am I restricted, harassed and denied the right to go about my lawful daily business when race-goers are given free run, priority access and a warm welcome.

Does it reduce my charges? No.

Silly me. Fancy thinking members of the council were elected by the citizens of York for our benefit when they work for Ascot instead.

I suggest the city councillors all move to Ascot and stand for election there. Better still take the highways team with you and relieve us of the burden of your grossly overpaid salaries, expenses and incompetences.

Then perhaps then we will have a ten per cent reduction in charges instead of a rise.

M J Natt,

Orchard Close,

Dringhouses, York.

...REGARDING race traffic on Ebor day and the experiment carried out by City of York Council, wouldn't it have been easier to direct the vehicles to the old airfields at Rufforth and Elvington or even the Park & Ride sites and Monks Cross then provide coaches straight to Knavesmire?

This would work for next year's Ascot meeting.

William Fairclough,

The Village,

Strensall, York.

...Your front page report 'Thumbs down to races traffic plan' (August 23) says you have conducted a survey in which "85 per cent of readers" gave a "massive thumbs down" to the city council's plans for handling the traffic at next year's Royal Ascot.

Yet your editorial mentions a figure of "75 per cent of readers" with the same view in a website survey and a negative response from a "resounding 93 per cent of those who responded to a phone survey".

These are attention-grabbing figures. Yet, while they may possibly be accurate, they are hardly clear and unambiguous. If your paper's circulation is the 41,500 given on your website's home page, are we really to believe that you have gathered some 31,125 (75 per cent) or 35,275 (85 per cent) or even 38,595 (93 per cent) negative responses?

This would have been an outstanding feat in such a short period of time. Unfortunately, your survey missed at least one household... mine.

Perhaps the reality is somewhat different and you actually surveyed, or heard from, a much smaller number of people with the probability of a very unrepresentative result.

Readers deserve to know the size of your sample, how it was gathered and from what parts of the city so they can judge for themselves.

Providing this information would be a small step to restoring the "fair, accurate and balanced coverage of all topics" which your policy statement on page 12 says you "strive to provide".

I wonder what your headlines would have been saying if the council had refused to entertain Ascot on the grounds that the traffic management problems would be insurmountable?

Coun Ian Cuthbertson,

Plainville Lane,

Wigginton, York.

- Editor's note: The Evening Press has consistently supported the plan to bring Royal Ascot to York and welcomes it as a marvellous opportunity for the city. We have applauded many aspects of the council's role in helping to make this possible.

However, traffic management was always going to be one of the biggest tests of staging such a crowd-pulling event. Last week's trial undeniably raised just as many questions as it answered.

The feedback we have received from readers in stories and contributions to our letters page leaves us in no doubt that there is a considerable depth of public feeling that the experiment did not work to the satisfaction of everyone. Our phone and website poll reinforced that view entirely.

Updated: 09:54 Wednesday, August 25, 2004