I HAVE read the letter from James Micklethwaite in which he suggests that the sole objective of the York outer ring road was "to feed the outlying villages" (November 9). I don't think that is correct.

I remember that on the day the new road opened, I was working at the Bootham end of Gillygate. The Evening Press reporter came along interviewing people about the substantial reduction in traffic, particularly HGV lorries, which was so noticeable that day, and which lasted for many months before the traffic levels started to build up again.

It was a wonderful feeling, a real improvement in the environment.

Now that the ring road has been open for so long, we all tend to forget the misery of having all traffic bound north passing through the city centre, with the dirt, congestion, vibration, queues and danger that came with it.

It was a pity that the new road was downgraded to a single carriageway, and has always had problems coping with the volume of traffic using it. But at least the HGVs are no longer queuing around the inner ring road.

Jenny McNeil,

Grosvenor Court,

York.

Updated: 08:43 Saturday, November 13, 2004