CITY of York Council may be short of cash. What does it do? Once again, it proposes to clobber the motorist.

Motorists are not being set apart, it's just most of us drive when we pop to the shops in York when we live beyond walking distance.

If streets such as Micklegate are no longer to have free parking for an hour, the small shops will suffer.

Just to stop at the kerbside will cost £1.40; to do that once a week will cost more than £70 a year. And, if you are a pensioner, this is about half of the pension increase due in April.

Roland Hall,

The Glade,

Escrick, York.

...THE council has done it again. More local taxation without benefit for the residents of York. The increased ResPark charges are ludicrous when the purpose of charging residents was to pay for the cost of the scheme. Has inflation increased so much? I think not.

At the same time people now have to pay for parking after 6pm. Okay, let's use the Park and Ride, something that the council is so proud of. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot, this stops running at 8pm.

Hard decisions have to be made about transport in and around York. I hope councillors from all parties will make the correct ones. At the moment I have little faith that this will happen.

Clive Appleyard,

Westminster Road, York.

....THE Evening Press has reported that late-night charging for car parking would hit pubs, restaurants etc (Comment, February 4). Yet you also report that several city restaurateurs are in favour of the charges.

I can now make the choice of whether I support an anti-motorist party at the next local election but could you possibly print a list of the "supporting restaurants", so I can also choose whether to patronise an establishment that favours the idea of making my visit more expensive even before entering the city?

Paul Gledhill,

Acomb Wood Close,

Woodthorpe,

York.

...I AM led to believe that there is no right to park a vehicle on any highway regardless of parking restrictions and that people who buy vehicles should only do so if they can provide off-street parking.

Technically, parking on the street is obstructing the highway and is a traffic offence. Does this mean our council is illegally selling parking space?

Secondly, according to reports in your paper, the proposed new housing to be built between Poppleton Road, The Barbican and Foss Islands/Huntington Road amounts to more than 6,000 new homes.

At a guess this will mean around an extra 15,000 moving into these areas bringing with them about 9,000 vehicles.

The developers will naturally provide parking to suit and increase the saleability. Given that these areas are already almost grid-locked twice a day, I wonder if the powers-that-be have considered this and how they expect to cope with it?

Jeff Davis,

Haxby Road, York.

...COUNCIL agenda? Cars, parking, charging, polluting, speeding.

Sincere thanks to the Evening Press for keeping us informed of what goes regarding to traffic in the city.

Can this "new" council still insist that the-powers-that-be are not anti-car?

Soon it will become impossible to buy a newspaper in the city without first paying a parking charge. And to suggest the A1237 needs speed reduction measures is laughable.

Does our executive member for planning and transport ever use this road during the normal working day?

I think not because if she did she would realise traffic moves so slowly she would probably be able to consider installing parking meters.

But then there is good news.

York is not in line to get a further 20,000 civil service jobs or 10,000 cars so we may not need to introduce road-charging for a while yet.

Were we expecting the individuals concerned to scrap their cars before coming, or to buy micro-cars which we can now assume all council members run?

S Dunhill,

Glendrew House,

Towthorpe Road,

Haxby,

York.

Updated: 11:36 Friday, February 06, 2004