The announcement that a green-minded Yorkshire & Humber Member of the European Parliament is trying to hold up the start of work on the Bingley relief road for yet another environmental assessment will cause widespread irritation and even anger in the traffic-choked town.

It has already had to wait more than 30 years for this desperately-needed road. The environmental issues have been looked into, examined and pored over. There cannot be any detail which has not been thoroughly explored. In effect, the issue has been settled once and for all. The vast majority of people connected with Bingley want the road to go ahead, and quickly, to allow the town to plan its new beginning freed from the nightmare of constant through traffic.

No-one wants to deny the importance of environmental concerns. All such projects should be considered thoroughly and carefully before the go-ahead is given. But that time is now passed.

Diana Wallis, the Liberal Democrat MEP concerned, hails from Swanland, near Hull. She is meddling in an issue of which she has no local knowledge and to which she has no local commitment. She is merely using it as an opportunity to pursue some political dogma of her own.

She must be prevented from upsetting the project, which has already dragged on long enough. The message to Diana Wallis from the Aire Valley has to be: turn your attention to pollution in the Humber or the plight of the swans in Swanland, but keep your nose out of Bingley's affairs.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.