THE new leader of City of York Council has stressed that local roads will not see congestion charges during the next four years - as a national survey today reveals that residents are split down the middle on the issue.

Liberal Democrat leader Coun Steve Galloway restated his pledge, first made before the recent local elections, that the council will not introduce charges in this council sitting.

He said: "We really feel that congestion charging would definitely not be the best thing for York.

"There are many other traffic options to reduce the problems of congestion and pollution in the city first, before we would even consider this."

He spoke as a new survey, by Reed.co.uk, which gauged the opinion of residents in cities outside London, showed that York is evenly divided over charges.

Reed managing director Dan Ferrandino said: "Though it may cost drivers more money, many are seeing congestion charging as an acceptable price to pay.

"Our research shows that almost a third of people across regions outside the capital feel a congestion charge could help solve transport problems in their own cities, as long as the money raised is invested in better public transport."

But Coun Galloway said: "There are many reasons why congestion charging is not right for the city, which many people do not realise.

"Firstly, it is a very costly system to introduce and run, which is easily absorbed by cities such as London, but would be a real problem for York.

"There are also the other problems this would cause, particularly in the number of 'rat runs' in residential districts which people would use to avoid paying the fees.

"This would force more traffic into areas not designed to deal with it, and the effects would be calamitous.

"The reality is that we could create more traffic through introducing these measures than by using our preferred, more incentive-driven methods."

He supported the development of existing systems of traffic control, such as smart traffic signs to warn of high congestion and pollution in areas.

He also supported a more integrated information system incorporating radio and internet messaging, to warn of traffic hotspots and to advise the use of other forms of transport.

Updated: 11:07 Monday, May 12, 2003