In his latest monthly column, York Outer MP Julian Sturdy laments the city’s traffic woes and gives his verdict on George Osborne’s budget

THE weekend before last, thousands of Trade Union Congress members and supporters from across the country marched through the city centre in protest against the Government’s austerity programme.

Whilst I do not agree with their views – having inherited the worst set of public accounts in our post-war history I believe the Government has done well to turn the economy around – I do support their democratic right to protest

However, what I do believe was profoundly wrong was the council’s decision to lift the ban on cars using Lendal Bridge in order to facilitate the TUC’s agenda.

To my mind this represented yet another cynical and politically-motivated decision which reflects badly on City of York Council and their judgement on this issue.

Why should TUC members, who are affiliated to the Labour Party, receive special treatment over and above the people of York who pay every single day to use our public services?

Although the events on the Saturday were deeply frustrating, they were not altogether surprising. The trialled closure of Lendal Bridge has been a fiasco from start to finish, as was made clear by this newspaper, which recently published a series of embarrassing leaked emails demonstrating how poorly the whole saga has been handled.

The council has clearly lost a great deal of public trust as a result of their failure to adequately explain how they intend to measure the “success” of the trailed closure.

Other issues surrounding poor signage, 42,000 penalty charges (a quarter of which are contested), and a lack of notification and consultation about the changes have done nothing to improve confidence in the council’s handling of the trial.

The last six months has demonstrated to everyone that the closure simply has not worked and I am pleased that my colleagues in the council have made a clear commitment to reopening Lendal Bridge if they are elected to power next year.

Whilst the bridge does not fall within my constituency, the closure has resulted in many of my constituents’ daily commute being plunged into disarray. Not only has it made getting into the city centre a herculean task, it has also resulted in a wider domino effect on the transport infrastructure in other parts of York.

The northern ring road has seen unprecedented levels of congestion in recent months which many believe to be a direct result of the closure.

When taken alongside the wholly unnecessary roll-out of a blanket 20mph speed limit throughout the city, many residents are rightly questioning whether there is an anti-car agenda within the council’s leadership? For many people, this view is confirmed by the fact that some of the council’s key decision makers are not car drivers themselves.

With the Chancellor’s Budget announced yesterday, I am delighted to hear that the personal tax allowance will increase to £10,500 next year, up from £6,475 when the Government came to power, saving the average taxpayer over £800 a year.

Corporation tax will also fall from 28 per cent in 2010, to 21 per cent this year and 20 per cent next year, which will be one of the lowest rates in the western world.

By allowing small businesses to benefit from their hard work and keep more of their profits, they will be in a stronger position to employ more staff, which will further strengthen our economic recovery.

There has been plenty of good news at a local level. I am thrilled that the campaign to help Yorkshire Air Ambulance with its fuel costs, which I raised in Parliament back in 2012, has now been taken up by the Treasury.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which saves lives everyday across the county, will benefit from the £325,000 five-year grant to help with the cost of paying VAT on its fuel.

The roads around York, which take a battering every single year, will also benefit from a new funding stream to repair potholes and I urge the city council to make a bid to the £200 million fund.

With the Office of Budget Responsibility forecasting strong economic growth rates for the next four years, and with unemployment continuing to fall, the future looks brighter than many predicted.

However, the job is far from done and as a proud Yorkshire MP I will continue to fight hard to make sure that the benefits of our economic recovery are shared right across the country, and are not restricted to London and South East alone.