REGARDING the rising bollard in Yorks's Stonebow, I bet that if a sign were errected just there which read: "Free £5 notes just around the corner" then the world and his wife would see it.

Casual traffic has been banned from this area for years yet the ban has been flouted by countless numbers of vehicles.

Those who do not see a dozen or more warning signs are driving without due care and attention and they must suffer the consequences.

Mrs Hilary James,

Abbots Gait,

Huntington, York.

...What's the score now 4-0, 5-0 ? Fair dinkum, I say. Drivers who flagrantly disobey the law deserve all they get.

They've had their chance. To stop that bollard being installed all they had to do was obey the traffic restriction notices that have been on Stonebow for many years. But they have not heeded the ban.

It's time to get tough. The point is so simple that even a car driver should be able to understand it. If you want avoid a dented bonnet and a bumped head read the signs and don't proceed.

As for installing a lowering barrier this is patent nonsense. This barrier would almost certainly be made of wood or light metal and would have been smashed four or five times by now and council workmen would have had to replace it. Why should council tax payers keep getting hammered for the bill for these arrogant law breakers?

My only gripe with the bollard is that there aren't enough of them. We need one in Piccadilly and one in Coppergate too.

The message to unauthorised drivers on these three roads is very straight forward: get out and stay out.

If they had to put up with cars rat-running around their neighbourhood and endangering lives they would soon shout for something to be done. Hypocrites all. The council has done exactly the right thing. More please.

Graham Horne

Beech Avenue

Bishopthorpe, York.

...I AM disabled and a regular visitor to York and I ask if the council, and the traffic tsar in particular, have made any provision for disabled drivers?

I suspect not. As I understand it, authorised vehicles have some sort of sensor that operates the bollard.

If this is so, then no provision will have been made for disabled drivers. Isn't it against the law, to deny the disabled the right of access?

If you live in York you may be aware of alternative routes to take, but visitors don't and won't be able to gain access to the area around Stonebow.

Once again the authorities have taken a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

W Elliott

Kinbrace Road

Hartlepool.

...I am amazed at the editorial stance you have taken against the legendary Stonebow bollard.

This scheme seems like an excellent way of forcing selfish motorists to toe the line.

The way drivers ignore the current Lendal Bridge restrictions; the way pedestrians are ignored as they wait to cross at any ring-road roundabout and the way motorists treat Stonebow as "not-for-cars -except-me," are all examples of an arrogance that endangers York citizens.

You printed a photo of a sad, law- breaking motorist on Saturday with her damaged car.

Would you print a picture of a thief bemoaning his broken crowbar?

The only losers because of the bollard are people who think they are above the law.

Simon Palmour,

Newlands Drive, York

...Are all these drivers blind, ignorant, or just plain stupid?

The bollard is perfectly big enough to see and from Peasholme Green it is certainly adequately signposted.

The other road signs explain that entry to the city is prohibited, so why do they insist on trying to do so?

Keep the bollards, my young family and I think they are doing a brilliant job.

Kaye Green.

(e-mail address supplied)

...six people have been injured by drivers in York's Pavement during the past three years. Drivers often rush through Pavement and Coppergate even during the busiest times. Pedestrians, including mothers and children, have to leap out of the way. If drivers hit the Stonebow bollard that's their problem. If they hit a child, or another pedestrian, they can destroy lives.

Anyone who critisies the bollard can't have experienced the death and injury of innocent friends and family because of reckless, careless drivers. Do they care more about a damaged car or a dead child?

Jim Semlyen,

Grange Street, York.

...Following the articles in the Press on the stealth bollard it seems to me that York has gone back to the dark ages when outsiders were impaled for daring to enter the city.

This device will become well known by the locals but will continue to impale unsuspecting visitors.

This instrument for making an example of any unsuspecting visitor who unwittingly strays into this public area must be on a par with putting broken glass on one's garden wall or shooting someone found burgling your home.

I understand the city has still not rescinded a local law by which any Scotsman found within the city walls after dark can be shot with a bow and arrow.

The signs into York should be changed to "Welcome To York, Visitors Will Be Shot Or Impaled."

Paul Hodgson,

North Lane,

Wheldrake,

York.