FIRSTLY let me say that having gone through the anxieties of bringing up children to adulthood, I feel deeply for the family of Megan Roberts, who tragically died as a result of falling into the River Ouse after a night out in town.

However, your article of March 13 on the campaign by Megan’s friends to make the river safer left me shaking my head.

They suggest it is the council’s duty to prevent these things from happening and therefore, by not having barriers on the riverbanks, the council is somehow responsible for these tragedies.

Whatever we may think of our elected members, this is ridiculous. Falling into the river is not the same as hitting a pothole in the road, or tripping over a wobbly paving flag.

Lendal Bridge is just one place where someone has gone into the river, so to cover all eventualities it would be necessary to fence off all the riverbanks in the city, a move both impractical and undesirable.

The Ouse is the city’s greatest natural asset and a major tourist attraction. Would any of us wish to have our access to it denied? This modern practice of shifting responsibility for our actions on to someone else has led to the nanny society.

Richard Carr, Station Road, Upper Poppleton, York