YP Letters: Council failings have left Leeds in the slow lane

Guests at the transport summit in Leeds called following the rejection of the trolleybus scheme.

I HAD great hopes for the Leeds Transport summit. I anticipated a collective realisation of Leeds Council’s failings and acknowledgement of the embarrassing state of transport in the city, resulting in a clear, urgent plan to move forward.

Let’s be clear: we are the largest city in Western Europe without a modern transit system. Expand that to the wider urban area to include Bradford and Wakefield and it becomes yet more damning. Greater Manchester is booming at the minute, with the tram system projected to have made 42 million passenger journeys this year. Modern transport makes places attractive to live in and move to.

I love this city but am growing frustrated at what seems like a disjointed, outdated and unambitious area. The fault for this lies squarely with an inept council. It’s simply not good enough, and as citizens we should be furious rather than the worn-down acceptance we’ve resigned ourselves to.

If devolution is to happen (and I hope it does), I hope we have more competence available than LCC when forming our local governance.

Let’s have some ambition and some pride in our city and get something good happening, and fast.