I READ in The Press of another council act of money wasting (Traffic census on key York routes, May 15).

This takes the form of asking why journeys are made - somewhat obvious, you would imagine - but is causing more problems traffic-wise according to The Press report.

Coming after the Lendal Bridge fiasco and the expensive consultancy employed to reduce staff sickness absence levels last year this begs the question does this council ever learn? Was sickness reduced after that exercise last year? I guess that’s a no.

As I’ve said before money would be far better spent directed towards public safety in York which is crying out for it now.

This could involve employing more taxi enforcement officers with police officers present to do something positive in the way of vehicle/insurance checks etc to eradicate out-of-town taxis from this city. This should be addressed more urgently to my mind.

Peter Boulton,

Orchard Gardens,

Huntington,York

Traffic census was two easy questions

I was stopped at a census point in Holgate Road on my way to a funeral at the crematorium.

The young man was very polite and asked me only two simple questions on behalf of City of York Council: where had I started my journey and what was my destination?

I answered both, he thanked me for my time and said: “Have a nice day.”

Daphne Stead,

Westholme Drive,

York

Is it time to opt for congestion charge?

DR Scott Marmion has appealed to City of York Council’s new leaders to stop closing roads to through traffic (Letters, May 14).

He would also like to see the A1237 dualled and provided with grade-separated junctions.

Scott may recall that the A1237 was built by North Yorkshire County Council, at a time when York still had two-tier local government.

NYCC were our local Highway Authority at that time. They designed the road as a local distributor, rather than an A64-style express bypass. Hence the roundabout junctions with the radials.

Ownership of the road passed to the Highways Agency, then finally to City of York Council, after the latter became a Unitary Authority. CoYC have funds to maintain the road, but must rely on external regional or national funding to implement any ‘upgrades’. I suspect that the enormous cost of grade separation is well beyond existing funding resources.

But one wonders how long we can keep trying to build our way out of congestion? Increasing road capacity inevitably encourages more journeys, which in a few years will erode the benefits of any extra capacity.

Perhaps the time is nearing when we may need to introduce congestion charging. Income should be retained locally and reinvested in priority measures for car sharing, public transport, cycling and walking.

Paul Hepworth,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate, York