I AGREE with Coun Dr Rothwell's conclusion in his letter of September 25 that the decision taken at a recent North Yorkshire Council meeting to confirm the 7.5 tonne restriction on the Otley Road, Killinghall served the needs of a small, vociferous group at the expense of a much larger group over a much wider area.

As he also states the decision was taken for the second time against the expert advice of the Council's Officers and police, which is astonishing given the ramifications of the decision.

I was at the meeting and in the spirit of compromise and common sense would have thought that his Liberal Democrat councillor-colleagues might at least have explored Coun Mackenzie's proposal for an increase in the weight limit to 18 tonnes which would have reduced the traffic burden on the A61 in Killinghall and at New Park and which could have formed the basis for a short term solution while a longer term solution to the problem is worked on.

That could have overcome also the inbuilt majority of the remaining Tory councillors, some of whose number succeeded in demonstrating to the meeting their ignorance of the wider ramifications of the decision with a couple of bizarre proposals to limit all traffic in the area to either 7.5 or 18 tonnes; measures which presumably would see all heavy goods traffic disappear into Killinghall's version of the Bermuda Triangle!

This sorry mess is the latest evidence of transport policy being made on the hoof with a yawning gulf in understanding between Harrogate Council and the County Council.

The coincidental decision to confirm the site of the recycling plant falls into this category and if Tesco is granted planning permission to build a store on the gasworks site, in the absence of a remodelling of the road network, then complete gridlock to the north of the town is a distinct possibility.

Time I think for some sensible cooperation and ‘joined up thinking’ from all parties rather than the present piecemeal, partisan process.