City needs better public transport Geoff Holloran, by email millions of pounds of Leeds taxpayers cash has been wasted on schemes such as the supertram and trolleybus, add to this the Labour controlled council’s obsession with creating cycle paths across the city, it just says to me that the Labour councillors who are taking these decisions presumably to ease the traffic congestion in our city have got it wrong. Stop wasting money on these vanity projects, what Leeds residents need is more capacity on the buses and trains, regular services and greater reliability of public transport. I would urge the ruling body in our council to stop blaming central government for Leeds transport problems and get on with the job of getting traffic in Leeds flowing freely, it can be done, indeed it has been done in cities far bigger than ours. ‘Cut congestion to get economy moving’ TACKLING congestion in cities such as Leeds should be a national priority the Government has been told. Gridlocked roads were highlighted as one of the major obstacles to the country’s economic growth in the UK in a new report from the National Infrastructure Commission. It highlighted figures showing more than 70 per cent of workers in Leeds use their car to get to work compared to less than a third in London. Leeds is also among a group of cities which have seen their populations grow by more than six per cent over the last decade as job opportunities are increasingly focused in urban areas. Train services are also under strain with one-in-six passengers standing on their communte into Leeds. We asked YEP what they think and here’s what some of them said on social media. Steven Cockx Maybe they should actually invest in a proper public transport system? There is one bus route from places like Kippax/Allerton Bywater to go to Leeds on. It’s unreliable, expensive and due to continuous buses knocking, more often than not, full at peak times. Why would anyone risk being late etc by using this? Peter Campbell Leeds and Bradford need to sort their roads out – there are some seriously bad roadworks planning creating real congestion. Mark Harrison Let’s just stick another bus lane in? Should be following Liverpool Labour and remove bus lanes, take out the 2+ lanes and let all of us get to work on time. Karlo Ispan Congestion has got worse, courtesy of poor road/retail development planning and narrowing of arterial routes. Nothing to do with cars more to do with incompetent council officers. Tony Owens When Brexit happens and like they all say we will go into some sort of recession, then we will be leaving the cars at home because we can’t afford to run them. Traffic congestion solved. John Vowles Look at where the problems are. Armley Road, they spend loads on a cycle lane..now it takes me an hour to get to work peak 9am because they have a two person lane and a one person lane. Take the middle out of the road and make it three lanes on each side. Am I paying road tax for cyclists who pay none? Just a thought...because they do what they want. Helen Ward-Neal Sort out the public transport – buses are unreliable and if you don’t get there early you can’t park at Pudsey train station. Stop narrowing roads / junctions making it worse for traffic – just like they’ve done in Pudsey! Murray Craigen Stop building retail parks at every major junction. They’re talking about building houses at the small bridge at the bottom of Armley Ridge Road going through to Kirkstall bridge, which is madness. If you’re worried about pollution, offer incentives for vehicles to get hydrogen on demand kits fitted which kill emissions. In fact, why are these people running the city? Anne Arundale If we didn’t have so many roadworks there wouldn’t be so much congestion! Tony Owens So what’s a traffic jam in Leeds got to do with the European Union surely it’s up to our own council to work out a solution. Leeds is third biggest city Alan Smith, Meanwood D S Boyes rushes to put pen to paper without first determining the facts ( YEP Letters October 14) Leeds is Britain’s third largest city by population after London and Birmingham (and strictly speaking Greater London is not a city according to the “official definition”). Leeds city has a population of 751,485 (source 2011 census data) compared to Manchester city 503,127. The erroneous comparison is being made between Leeds city and Greater Manchester (pop. 2,682,528) which includes the other city of Salford and other towns. According to Eurostat, in terms of physical size, Leeds comes second after Greater London (8920 sq. km) with an area of 5114 sq, km.: Manchester can only come ninth with an area of 1280 sq. km. Where they do have us statistically however is in population density: Manchester 11,439 people per square mile compared to Leeds, 3,528. I know where I would rather live! P Hazelgrave, by email In response to the DS Boyes (YEP October 14) you are confusing the City of Manchester with the metropolitan area of Greater Manchester. Councillor Lewis is correct in his statement. Leeds is the third biggest city in the UK, with a population of 720,000; Manchester is the 9th, with a population of 420,000. (Source census 2011). I am not sure where the number of councillors come from in your letter, but Leeds has eight MPs and Manchester has five. Which is also a reflection on the sizes of the two cities. Over the years, it has become common practice within the media to refers to Manchester, when they are confusing it with Greater Manchester. An example of this common mistake is heard numerous times per week on BBC Breakfast, when they refer to their studios being in Manchester, when it is in Salford, Greater Manchester.
