DOUBLE standards and hypocrisy seem to prevail within the City of York Council traffic & planning departments.

How is it that council officers can recommend closing a road (Straylands Grove rising bollard) to through traffic, then virtually in the same breath advise council planners to open up Osbaldwick Village, Temple Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Meadlands to increased traffic associated with a possible 540 home new estate at Osbaldwick?

At the recent planning meeting for the Derwenthorpe scheme, the city traffic supremo Peter Evely used to great effect his plastic cup analogy of road traffic capacity to convince councillors that much more could be added to the cup before it was full and therefore his traffic assessment must be sound and sustainable.

Do we assume that in the case of Straylands it is carrying the maximum number of vehicles it can take and using the same analogy the cup is not only full, but is now overflowing?

If there has been a traffic study carried out, I and other readers would be interested in the results.

Mr Evely said in the Evening Press on 17 April 2004: "People are entitled to have peace and quiet in their own homes - if they have chosen to buy a house on a main road they have done so with their eyes wide open. People on side roads didn't buy with that in mind and are therefore entitled to have it". Comments applicable to each situation.

It would appear that council planners are intent on applying their 'environmental capacity standards' very selectively.

D Spaven,

Meadlands,

York.

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, February 15, 2005