I Come into York because I have to, not because I want to. If there were anywhere else I could go to, then I would.

York is a place where the past seems to be more important than the present or the future. Now, the people who try to run - or should that read ruin? - the city have come up with yet another crazy idea to improve the traffic problem we have in York.

What City of York Council seemingly fails to understand it is it is creating the problem. When the Bootham/Gillygate traffic lights go out, the traffic flows much more freely. When the lights do "work", traffic backs up all the way along Bootham, Gillygate and St Leonard's.

Closing St Leonard's will send traffic on other routes which are already busy. There is also talk of building another road at the cost of God knows how many millions. I was under the impression that St Leonard's formed part of the inner ring road, or is this a myth?

Kingsway North was mentioned as a possible alternative route. Do you think the people who live in this road are going to be pleased about this? I think not! That aside, where will this traffic end up? Yes, Wigginton Road where street blockades already exist and which already has its share of traffic.

The trouble with City of York Council is that it is against any modern form of transport. Recently, I had the misfortune to have to use public transport and it took 55 minutes to get from my street to Rougier Street. The normal car journey takes ten minutes, so why do I want to use public transport?

Adrian Pickard,

Temple Garth,

Copmanthorpe,

York.

...CITY of York Council needs to think long and hard before it implements any more half-baked footstreet schemes that it doesn't intend to enforce.

The existing footstreet scheme is a monumental cock-up. All it has done is create somewhere for superficial shopping junkies to get fleeced. All right, so they threw in a bit of history to make shoppers feel good. Big deal.

There is more for tourists in York than there is for the people who pay the bills: the residents. So let's put people first and give them their streets back by urgently eliminating rat-runs and creating home-zones where people can walk/cycle up the street without having to negotiate the obstacle course of stupidly parked cars and risk getting mangled or gassed within the first 100 metres of their journey.

Planners should not attempt to undertake this kind of town planning. This kind of vision calls for more than one brain cell and should be undertaken by planners from other cities where these kinds of schemes are in place and working. City Of York Council can choose from any of Bruges, Skagen, Frederickshavn, Middleburg, Aarhus or Odense (these are the ones I have seen, there are others no doubt.).

A snippet from this months issue of a history magazine: "Mrs Bridget Driscoll has gone on record as being the first pedestrian killed by a car in 1896. It was travelling at all of 4mph. The coroner remarked at the inquest 'This must never be allowed to happen again'."

Yeah right.

Graham Horne,

Beech Avenue,

Bishopthorpe, York.

...THE possibility of freeing up St Leonards Place from traffic, with support from the council leader, is great news for the city.

Extend this to include Gillygate and you can guarantee the street will quickly become a really fashionable thriving 'quarter', with residents and visitors alike, able to breathe and enjoy the varied little cafs and specialist stores.

I have seen this happen in other cities where traffic was removed, such as Nottingham (Goosegate) and Sheffield (Division St). A couple of small pleas, however: put cycle parking at the ends of the streets and make sure cycle routes are given equal consideration to those for buses and cars.

On the issue of a new road through York Central, I don't think this should go ahead unless it is also used to remove much of the traffic using Blossom St - Holgate Road heading for the A59. We have to limit road capacity as all the evidence shows it will just quickly fill up with cars.

Coun Andy D'Agorne,

Broadway West, York.

...MORE traffic-free areas are a fantastic idea! Thanks for being courageous enough to look at them, Councillor Galloway.

St Leonard's Place is a pollution black spot for Nitrogen Dioxide and something urgently needs to be done, or tourism will suffer as well as residents' health.

Congestion charging and a ban on all road building including to the outer ring road are part of the solution.

Why spend money on motoring facilities when we are trying to discourage them?

Allowing cycles and pedestrians to share roads closed to other traffic is safe according to the Transport Research Laboratory.

Helping people to get around York without a car is the best way to improve York people's quality of life.

My book Cutting Your Car Use can help. It has been revised and updated. Contact Green Books on 01803 863260 for your copy (£3.95+£1 p&p down to as little as £1 for bulk orders)

Anna Semlyen,

Cutting Your Car Use Transport Consultant,

Grange St, York.

...I AM all in favour of pedestranisation in St Leonard's. I am not in favour of sending more traffic to Clifton, which cannot cope with the traffic it has now.

The hospital generates a lot of traffic and I would like to see a platform at the hospital for trains and lifts at the sides of the glass bridge. The hospital and railway would go shares to pay and it would not cost the council anything.

M Knaggs,

Kingsway North, York.

Updated: 08:56 Monday, November 17, 2003