A bridge too far

Council tax payers have hardly had time to swallow the recent plundering of our resources in the 13 per cent increase in council tax, when we are told they are proposing to construct a footbridge from North Street to the Guildhall.

It also illustrates that although Councillor Merrett took great pains to sound concerned about these continual hikes, he really has no intention of curbing irrational spending.

I cannot see what useful purpose such a bridge would have. It is within 100 yards of Lendal Bridge and 250 yards of Ouse Bridge. Both have footpaths which have been widened over recent years to accommodate pedestrians.

To squander £2 million on such a project is total lunacy and really anyone who has worked for the council will know that estimates usually escalate and the final figure would be nearer £4 million.

The only real advantage of such a scheme would be to allow Councillor Merrett to cycle to the Guildhall faster so that he and his team will have more time to sit and ponder over other ridiculous ways of spending our hard-earned cash.

John Miller,

Hunters Close, Dunnington, York.

...AS MUCH as I would like to see it happen, I cannot envisage a memorial or statue on the TSB building in St Helens Square in memory of Les Richardson MBE. If planning permission were granted, then there is the age-old chestnut of any memorial being vandalised or messed upon by pigeons.

How about calling the proposed new footbridge across the Ouse after Les?

Thinking about it, the bridge would be close to the old Press offices where Les must have been thousands of times and within a stone's throw of his old "patch" in St Helen's Square.

If Dame Judi Dench can have an area of land between Lendal Bridge and beyond the rear of St Peters School named after her, then I am sure a local man who was out in all weathers six days a week bringing to us our local news is well worth a footbridge named after him.

PR Willey,

Burnholme Drive,

Heworth, York.

Updated: 10:32 Tuesday, March 11, 2003