PLANNERS would deliver a "kick in the teeth" to the people of York if they failed to allow cars to use a proposed link road between two grid-locked streets, according to a city architect.

As reported in The Press, City of York Council officers have suggested building a link road through the Nestle factory site which would join Haxby Road and Wigginton Road. But they only propose opening it to buses, bicycles and pedestrians. Cars would be banned with motorists from parts of the city, such as Clifton, having to travel all the way down Haxby Road and back up Wigginton Road if they wished to get to some other parts of the city.

Traffic jams at the junction of the two roads occur regularly with tailbacks forming back towards York Hospital.

The council said that if it opened the proposed new road to cars, more traffic would be generated.

But an architect said its policies and logic were inconsistent. Matthew Laverack, of Laverack Associates, Lord Mayor's Walk, York, pointed to the James Street link road which was opened in November at a cost of £2.7million in an effort to cut congestion.

Mr Laverack said: "If it was right for them to open the link road, it's just as equally right to have a relief road connecting Haxby and Wigginton Road.

He added: "The refusal of the council to include a relief road for all traffic in the blueprint for the Rowntree site is a kick in the teeth for local people and businesses caught up in congestion around the hospital and also for the unfortunate residents who live along the route of the snarl-up."

His thoughts were echoed by Peter Burbidge, of Neville Street, who has lived in York for 71 years. He believes the proposed link road would offer a golden opportunity to cut the congestion.

He said: "During the day the traffic has just built up and built up. There are horrendous queues of traffic.

"It is vital for the sake of York and the hospital that we get enough of that ground, not just to have a bus and cycle track, but that we get cars down there."

But the council denied its thinking was inconsistent.

A spokesman said: "The new James Street Link Road forms part of a longer road link, which will eventually connect Heworth Green and Lawrence Street. This scheme will, in its entirety, reduce congestion across a wide area, including on the very busy Foss Islands Road.

"Because of its particular location in the network, detailed modelling work shows that it will not encourage extra traffic."