The state of the two main roads linking York to the coast has long been a sore point.

Neither the A1079 nor the A64 are up to the job. For much of their length, they are not even dual carriageways.

That makes them dangerous - and it also damages the economy of the entire region.

How is new money supposed to flow in when the basic transport infrastructure isn't even there?

The suspicion has always been that if York were a southern city, the money would quickly have been found to improve those roads.

Today, campaigners claim exactly that.

They say the fact that £300 million is to be spent on a car-sharing lane on the M1 between Luton and London that will be in use only at peak times is proof that the cash is there for Yorkshire road improvements. It is the will that is lacking.

A fraction of the money to be spent on the M1 would make a huge difference here. Every day, 15,000 cars use the A1079. In the last five years alone, there have been more than 275 accidents and 16 deaths on the road.

It is not the first time York has lost out to other regions in the funding stakes.

Last month, The Press reported concerns that the city's council tenants were subsidising Londoners and others to the tune of £1,000 a year each because of the way housing income is reallocated.

Ministers must remember that there is a world north of the Watford gap.

At peak times it can take more than an hour just to get from Pocklington to York.

As one motorist who signed an online petition wrote, that is a disgrace.