I witnessed the massive queues coming from Tadcaster towards York on Monday morning, the first day of the new roadworks on the A64 at Copmanthorpe.

At 8.15am the traffic was just about stationary from Copmanthorpe back to the Aagrah Restaurant, the former Wild Man pub.

The main reason for this was well illustrated in your photograph on the front page that day. It shows a single lane of traffic. If, however, the traffic had been split into two lanes about half a mile before the roadworks - near the Buckles Inn - traffic wanting to go left on to the Northern bypass and vehicles going straight on into York or to Scarborough etc would have been split and this would have halved the length of the queues.

Rearranging a few bollards and signs could reduce the problem for the next 60 weeks. It was widely reported on the radio that the Copmanthorpe junction is the "most dangerous in Yorkshire".

I dispute that. It is, surely, the next junction on the A64 towards Tadcaster, at Bilborough Top and Colton Lane. This junction is often in the news and I would have thought it should have been tackled before the Copmanthorpe junction.

By the way, access to the A64 from Copmanthorpe can easily and safely be achieved from the west of the village by joining it directly in either east or west directions from the overhead roundabout at the junction of the A64 and the northern bypass.

So why spend £4 million pounds when the solution is only 800 yards away?

Stuart Wilson,

Vesper Drive,

Acomb,

York.

...HOW long can it possibly take to 'improve' a roundabout?

Work on the one connecting the A19 and the A1237 started early in May, and still continues.

Of course it was started to coincide with the beginning of the holiday season.

Will road experts make this roundabout work last over the Christmas period, as they did with the roundabout on the Wigginton Road last year?

All this time, because of the road works, traffic has continuously backed up on the A1237 at least as far as Clifton Moor roundabout, and often beyond.

I am fortunate in being able to avoid the area in the rush hour, when it must be much worse.

It is presumably just as bad on the A19 and on the A1237 from the West.

I have felt unable to use the Rawcliffe Park and Ride all summer because to get there would mean spending so long in the tail-back, emitting and breathing exhaust fumes.

How much damage is this stationary and crawling traffic doing to our atmosphere, while York boasts of having a 'green' agenda?

P A Crowson,

York Road,

Haxby,

York.

Updated: 09:59 Wednesday, September 12, 2001