IT is ironic that your correspondent Paul Hepworth should rage against "the motoring lobby" when the spare parts needed to keep his bicycle on the road are delivered by lorry (Stand up to the motoring lobby, Readers' Letters, January 27).

Councillors are to be congratulated for instructing officers to make any Nestlé site link road universally available to ease congestion at the Clarence Street junction.

Councillors have realised cross-town traffic is not going to disappear and something needs to be done about this horrendous bottle-neck.

No matter how many initiatives encourage alternative transport, any redevelopment at Nestlé is bound to generate additional traffic and the Clarence Street junction needs a reduction in traffic - not an increase!

Motorists are not being selfish - Mr Hepworth and the cycling mafia are. They retain use of the old cross-routes at Vyner Street and Fountayne Street. They also use the publicly-funded Sustrans cycle network.

They pay no road tax and make no contribution to the upkeep of the road network they enjoy. Not content with this, they now want near-exclusive use of any new road linking Wigginton Road with Haxby Road.

It is nonsense to suggest new roads simply suck in more cars. Drivers who currently suffer the misery of Crichton Avenue, Wigginton Road and Clarence Street are trying to get to their destination and have no alternative route.

The only other way is to suffer equally horrendous congestion on the outer ring road. The last time I was caught up in the wretched, choking queue of traffic outside the hospital, I was transporting half a ton of scaffolding and six bags of cement.

Is Mr Hepworth really suggesting I should use my bike, or go on the bus? He needs to wake up and join the real world.

Matthew Laverack, architect, Lord Mayor's Walk, York.