The Council has finally published the report which it says supports the decision to keep the southbound lane of the Bishopthorpe Road closed for at least another 2 months. The report became public yesterday (6th June) , some six days after it was tabled for a “behind closed doors” decision meeting.

It reveals that there is a lot of opposition to the Councils policy including a 1600 signature “on line” petition.

Both it and email representations were ignored by the Council.

No consideration was given to changing the hours or scale of the closure and no consideration was given to implementing a shorter diversion route.

There is no evidence that stakeholders – including traders and those living on the diversion route – were consulted about options.

The report talks about additional stores opening next week “resulting in increasing queue lengths”. It omits to point out that these are located on the west side of the road where properties have a forecourt.

Resurfacing works on Nunnery Lane will take place from Monday 15 June for seven nights, working between 7.30pm and 5am Monday to Friday only. This will mean an additional diversion for drivers, including buses, of around 1.5 miles via City centre streets.