SOMEWHERE out there is a lorry driver who is hopefully riddled with guilt at the mayhem he’s causing to the communities of Elvington and Sutton-upon-Derwent.

You may recall the mystery motorist who earlier this year knocked a hefty hole into the side of Sutton bridge over the River Derwent and then promptly scarpered, leaving chaos in his wake.

The bridge closed for a number of weeks and reopened after howls of protests from locals who quite rightly said it was ludicrous to keep such an important link out of use while contractors rested on their shovels waiting for replacement stone to be cut.

Everyone knew it would have to close again for repairs to be completed, but were assured that this time it would be planned in full consultation with, and in consideration of, the local community. Wrong!

How, for example, do pensioners from Elvington walk the quarter mile over the bridge to their local Post Office housed in Sutton village hall to get their pensions in the 15-minute window allowed them between the Post Office opening each morning and pedestrian access across the bridge being shut? Why was the closure planned during the same period as 16 weeks of work on the A19 between Escrick and Crockey Hill when East Riding of Yorkshire Council said they wouldn’t do that because of the hassle it would cause?

And while we’re at it, what bright spark planned that work at the same time as the gas mains being dug up in the Lawrence Street area so creating mayhem on both of the only two roads into the city for the folk of Wheldrake? We’ve also now got the gas board digging up Fulford Road only weeks after the major exercise was completed to put in new kerbs, traffic lanes and road markings on much of its length.What is it with these people? Don’t they talk to each other? It would appear not.

MY tongue-in-cheek comments last week about the rocketing popularity of skimpy swimming trunks obviously touched a raw nerve with some of those who lurk on The Press’s website.

For the piece resulted in a tirade of on-line personal and vindictive abuse – no doubt written by alleged examples of the male fraternity – that only served to illustrate that there are some mean-minded, mean-spirited people out there with the modern-day mentality demonstrated by those hundreds of years ago who thought it fair game to throw Christians to the lions.

And no doubt they would be outraged to the point of violence if the roles were reversed and someone had the audacity to make snide, vicious, and personally insulting comments about their wives, girlfriends, sisters or mothers.

I’m all for freedom of speech and people being able to voice their opinions, and the internet is a fabulous tool for people to keep in touch with what’s going on in their local community, but there’s no doubt that the rise of online newspapers has served to highlight the hard core hunting-in-packs mentality of some apparent members of the human race.

Many comments on newspaper websites are well written, thought-provoking and on occasion, very funny. But some are just plain nasty, and it’s difficult to know how webmasters can properly moderate against them, the realisation of which only serves to whip up the frenzied even more.

I’m no apologist for some of the antics undertaken by City of York councillors but you’ve only got to read a couple of examples of the sustained viciousness directed at some of our more prominent citizens to see what I mean.

No doubt this piece – and many other stories on The Press website – will continue to fuel yet more vindictiveness on the part of the intellectually challenged who sit in darkened-rooms surfing the web and think being venomous is providing informed comment.

There again, perhaps they might do us all a favour and keep their horrible little thoughts to themselves. On second thoughts, that’s like asking England to win the World Cup...