Your correspondent Tim Bright (Alternative to a dual dilemma, Letters, October 9) rightly states that dualling the ring road "is not going to solve the problem", highlighting the fact that the roundabouts are a more significant factor in delays.

It is regrettable that the Future York group, when proposing the dualling of the ring road, failed to look at the expert evidence in the Halcrow Outer Ring Road study (reported to the council in July 2005).

As I quoted in the council debate, this concluded that "the junctions are the restricting factor" and "the full dual option results in similar time-user benefits to that of upgrading roundabouts" - to do this would only be 20 per cent of the full cost.

The Press report ("Time to dual the ring road", Oct 6) failed to mention this inconvenient truth, which I spelled out in my speech in support of the composite Labour/ Lib Dem/ Green amendment.

The consultants' modelling demonstrated that dualling would save only three minutes in the 2021 predicted travel time (from one end of the road to the other), when compared with the vastly cheaper junction upgrading option.

Dualling would therefore mean spending an additional £92 million, merely to save three minutes on the whole journey. The time for building new roads is over - we need high-quality, low carbon public transport, and planning solutions that cut our carbon output and dependence on imported oil.

Coun Andy D'Agorne, York Green Party Fishergate York.