SOME of us waited 70 years for a bus station to be provided at Tadcaster. What have we achieved by 2003 after all our patience and tolerance? Spartan conditions! "Like it or lump it", that's what we have got.

It would not be too fanciful to suggest that staging posts en-route to Siberian Labour camps would seem to be the last word in luxury compared with the so-called state-of-the-art bus station on the revamped Britannia car park in this brewery town.

All of them exposed to the elements, the seats now provided for waiting bus passengers are very narrow and more importantly have no back rests. Leaning one's spine on a concrete wall is painful and not to be recommended.

What happened to those "substantial", comfortable seats that have been replaced? They had backs! Were they by any chance considered by the powers that be to be too much of a luxury for the likes of myself who has to rely on public transport? Surely not!

Mrs I M Goodrick,

Woodlands Avenue,

Tadcaster.

Updated: 10:53 Tuesday, July 01, 2003