SO YORK is once more facing road transport in chaos as Lendal Bridge is to be closed to cars (The Press, April 27).

Sometimes I wonder if councillors just want to see what they can ruin instead of trying to improve the traffic situation. It seems cars are bad and all else is good.

Well, take Clifton Green junction and the huge queues back to nearly Boroughbridge Road caused when the filter lane was removed.

Fortunately, this has now been reinstated, traffic flows well, and the councillor who came up with that stupid idea was given his marching orders at the last election.

Car drivers don’t cause problems as they just want to move through an area and not to be shunted here, there and everywhere by those with little else to do.

So, councillors take note: your cushy number on the council may be lost to you by the voters of York, so stop treating us as if you know more than the people.

Tony Skaife, Carr Lane, York.


• ABOUT the proposed banning of private cars, etc, on Lendal Bridge, how can residents of the Bootham area get themselves and their luggage to the station?

Go round partly over Clifton Bridge, already congested, wend our way through the rat runs causing more annoyance to the locals? Or a 40-minute trek round the ring road when we can actually hear the station announcements from our yard?

And to get to the other side of town would leave only the Gillygate option – that is bad now and would become a nightmare. At the very least local residents and disabled badge holders should have a permit to use the bridge. We cannot all afford taxis on a regular basis.

Angela Burt, Marygate, York.


• HAS anyone at the council thought of the chaos and disruption the planned closure of Lendal Bridge is going to inflict on residents to the east of the river going to the station?

The extra traffic flow to Leeman Road/Blossom Street/Nunnery Lane and all the bridges in York is incalculable.

The sudden proposal (so soon after moving out of St Leonard’s Place), closing certain streets to traffic and the moving of the bus stops from in front of the proposed new hotel seem fishy to me.

York has had many names in the past. Perhaps the time has come to change again. All the areas away from the city, including all the new shopping areas and proposed new housing, could be called New York.

The old city should have all the walls and gates reinstated and a notice placed on each gate: “Welcome to Hades – abandon all hope all ye who enters here.”

The council seems hell-bent on tearing the heart out of this beautiful city.

Allowing the new shops at Huntington and now closing Lendal Bridge will leave York inaccessible to the majority of local people.

D Deamer, Penleys Grove Street, York.


• NOT only are (as Mr Jones suggests in his letter April 30) the ‘Commissariat’ closing down Lendal Bridge, they are taking away part of our cultural heritage in the form of old Yorkshire sayings.

What am I going to say now when I am struggling to make ends meet?

I certainly won’t be able to say, “I’ll have to stand on Lendal Bridge” as there will be no trade if only taxis and buses are passing.

Skeldergate Sal, formerly Lendal Lil, York.

(Full name supplied)