W Bevan (November 20) revived the rejected notion that the new ‘Cocoa Works’ residential properties on the Nestlé site should be served by a through road open to all, linking the Wigginton and Haxby Roads. This would supposedly ‘ease congestion’.

Unfortunately no local authority on the planet has ever been able to build their way out of congestion by creating more highway capacity. That simply generates greater use, in a self defeating process known to transport planners as ‘induced traffic’.

The transport assessment for the Cocoa Works planning application sensibly recognised this, and highlighted the proximity of the site to the city as a factor which will encourage use of walking, cycling and public transport. Priority measures for these latter travel choices can be achieved by re-allocating road space away from private cars.

Cars are good servants, but we must not let them become bad masters. Let us await with interest the run up to next year’s local elections in York. How many prospective councillors will try to court the motorists’ vote? And how many will publicly support the main aim of our current Local Transport Plan, which is to encourage further reductions in car dependency?

Paul Hepworth,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate, York