I WAS dismayed at the planning committee's readiness to take refuge behind the traffic figures put forward by Peter Evely, the council's head of network management, to justify their decision to approve outline planning permission for the proposed 540-home Derwenthorpe development at Osbaldwick.

Mr Evely's figures - presented without detailed explanation or supporting references - came when objectors had extremely limited right to reply. Yet one councillor stated that objectors had failed to provide figures to contradict those put forward by Mr Evely.

How could they challenge figures with which they had only just been presented, when they were not entitled to question the person presenting them?

Coun Macdonald asked why some of Mr Evely's assertions, if they were so "robust", were greeted with hoots of derision by objectors. The answer is simple: there is a vast difference between theoretical design capacities and real roads, in real communities, affecting real people.

We live in Osbaldwick, and we know from our own day-to-day experience that the technical analyses put forward do not correspond to the reality on the street.

Local residents' concerns regarding traffic remain inadequately addressed. Mr Evely patronisingly claimed that the objectors' arguments would be "demolished in five minutes" at a public inquiry.

Yet, as far as we can see, a public inquiry remains the only hope for a properly democratic and thorough investigation of the issues, while City of York Council remains opposed to entering into any discussion with residents.

Osbaldwick Parish Council has repeatedly requested dialogue with Mr Evely's department on the subject, to no avail. In the context of a project being sold on tickets of community involvement and public consultation, this is a sad disappointment. In the context of a failure of democracy, it is a disgrace.

Catherine Foster,

Osbaldwick Lane, York.

Updated: 11:20 Wednesday, February 02, 2005