THE response of City of York Council to Colin Richardson’s letter (Thursday, June 23) rather confirms Colin’s comment that something is very wrong in the council department responsible for road planning.

Colin pointed out, quite rightly, that the council has created at great expense, a situation in York Road, Acomb, near Severus Street junction, which is downright dangerous, and he asked if a simple safety audit had been done before the works were carried out.

From the response, it seems the answer is, probably not. It says that the facilities have been “carefully designed to minimise potential problems”.

This is not credible when they have created problems for pedestrians where no problems existed before.

The response also says they will be “monitoring” and “carrying out a safety review in a few weeks’ time”.

All obvious problems should have been eliminated by a safety audit at the design stage. This monitoring and review in a few weeks’ time sounds like an excuse to delay putting things right until after someone gets badly hurt. It does not take monitoring or a review to see the dangers created by the council. They are all too obvious.

New signs invite cyclists to “share” footways, which are already busy with pedestrians.

There is nothing to show which parts of the shared footways are for cyclists and which parts remain safe for pedestrians, or even where the “shared” part of the footway ends. No white lines, no green paint! It is a dangerous free-for-all.

Richard Bell, Lynden Way, York.