IT IS now more than a year since City of York Council appealed against a national traffic watchdog's ruling that it had no right to fine private motorists crossing Lendal Bridge or using Coppergate in the daytime.

The ruling led to the authority abandoning its controversial ban on cars using Lendal Bridge.

The council subsequently decided to refund thousands of motorists who had been fined while crossing there. But we still don't know whether it was within its rights to fine motorists using Coppergate.

The national Traffic Penalty Tribunal announced last month that it would be publishing its decision on the council's appeal shortly. But now the tribunal's Chief Adjudicator has said the decision will not be made public until after the local elections in May.

There will be considerable frustration at this. The ruling could have significant consequences, not only for the movement of traffic around York city centre, but also for other councils' ability to enforce bus lanes elsewhere in the country.

There are also many motorists who are out of pocket. The city council is holding on to £387,000 collected in fines from motorists using Coppergate, in case it does need to refund them.

This case has dragged on for far too long. We hope that the tribunal will not delay further once the elections are out of the way, but will then publish its findings as quickly as possible.