SOME 18 years ago soon after my arrival in York, I did a tour of the city with two HSE Traffic Inspectors, with whom I was working on a pay and grading review.

Among their many comments was that York was the worst example of self-inflicted traffic misery they had come across.

As a councillor for eight years I tried my best to bring in outside professional advice to try to alleviate the damage done to the city and pollution levels by the obsession with catering for York’s own protected species, the cycling fraternity.

I thought we had seen every anti-car measure possible but I was wrong.

The council has now surpassed itself with the most nonsensical, pollution-causing chaos of traffic alterations at Holgate Road that I have ever had the misfortune to come across.

What was a five-to-ten minute, trouble-free drive into the city or the station is now a 30 to 40 minute traffic jam causing huge increases in pollution as cars sit with engines running playing “spot the cyclist”.

Liz Edge Parkside Close, York.