YP Letters: Please put Manchester at the wheel of Leeds Council's transport policy

IT may have escaped your attention, but on Friday, October 14, Manchester City Council announced a further £350m of Government funding for a 3.4 mile extension to its extensive tramway system.

To an inhabitant of Leeds these last 40 years, the news is a mixture of congratulation at Mancunian success and anger at the inability of the appalling Leeds City Council to deliver any significant progress towards 
a mass transit policy for 
this city.

Two new stations on the Skipton line and a park and ride scheme in 2014 do not make a mass transit solution that bears comparison with Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham or Newcastle to name but four, or the £15bn poured into London’s Crossrail project.

I have long held the view 
that Leeds City Council 
has a secret plan to get us out of cars and on to donkeys, the only cost-efficient means to tackle both the hills and the road conditions.

I am also pretty certain that the phrase “Northern Powerhouse” to a Leeds city councillor means that wooden shed housing the steam 
engine that pumps water out 
of the pit.

Other than sinking to one’s knees to quietly weep at the city’s inability to confront the challenges of a 21st century urban environment, perhaps 
the only alternative is to petition the chief executive of Manchester City Council to take over the administration of Leeds as quickly as possible.

From: John Turner, Leeds.

LEEDS needs improvements to public transport, and nowhere more than Wortley and Armley, where pedestrians and cyclists cannot get to the city centre without using bridges to get across the horror that is the Armley gyratory and the nearby rail lines.

Perhaps the council will consider engineering works between Copley Hill and Whitehall Road under the Ingram feeder dual carriageway, next to Dunelm retail, so that there is an underpass for buses, and a wide path for walkers and cyclists.

The number 4, 16, and 42 buses would then have a much quicker direct access to the city centre, and it would relieve traffic on the gyratory and Wellington Street.

You have £170m to spend – spend it wisely on long term strategic projects and keep on challenging and reducing private car congestion.