HUNDREDS of York residents have pleaded for their suburb to be spared extra traffic if the pedestrianisation of a stretch of the inner ring road goes ahead.

City of York councillors are being urged to ensure that Clifton residents' views are taken on board when officers draw up the Local Transport Plan (LTP).

The Evening Press exclusively revealed last November that transport chiefs were to investigate the possible barring of through traffic from St Leonard's Place as the existing plan is revised.

Council leader Steve Galloway said such a move could, at a stroke, rid the city centre of one of its worst pollution and congestion blackspots, turning the area around historic Bootham Bar and the City Art Gallery into a peaceful square to be enjoyed by residents and tourists alike.

But he stressed that such a scheme was only a long-term possibility, which could only go ahead in conjunction with other major transport projects, including moves to encourage people to use public transport instead of cars and major improvements to the outer ring road.

It would also require the construction of a proposed new road through the York Central redevelopment site, behind York railway station, to take a diverted inner ring road to Clifton Bridge.

From there, the residue of inner ring road traffic which wanted to get to Lord Mayor's Walk would either travel along Bootham and Gillygate, or go through Kingsway North, Crichton Avenue and Wigginton Road.

This suggestion caused outrage in Clifton, with residents protesting that no extra traffic must come through the area's residential streets.

A report to next week's planning and transport advisory panel says that a petition was subsequently signed by hundreds of people, asking the council to "reconsider plans to close St Leonard's and send traffic through Clifton".

It says officers have undertaken no specific analysis of the likely impact of the pedestrianisation of St Leonard's, or any other city centre street.

But the council was carrying out a public consultation on the future of transport in York, to help develop the new transport plan, and was asking local people, including Clifton residents, for their views, on issues including pedestrianisation.

The results of the consultation, along with technical analysis of options for the future of transport, would form the basis of the plan, which was to be published in July next year.

Updated: 08:29 Thursday, April 01, 2004