I READ with some interest Emily Heath's letter in the Citizen, May 25.

She says she lived in the city in the 90s. Well I can tell her that before the Lancaster bypass was made in 1959, the A6 was the main road north to south and can you imagine the volume of traffic that came through Lancaster?

I started driving in 1952 and it used to take me on a Sunday one and a half hours to get from the bus station on Damside Street to Skerton Bridge. That changed once they built the M6. Of course, as more people started to use cars the traffic built up again. With Heysham getting busier and Morecambe trying to bring in more visitors, it does seem unfair to bring them all through the city centre.

I think we do need a new road over the river and also an inner relief road. Lancaster is a lot cleaner now than it has ever been. She does not remember Green Ayre being a coal yard or the factory chimneys spewing out filthy smoke. As a child in Lancaster I could never see colour in the city, everything was black or grey.

As for the Greens they seem to take credit for one or two changes like the bottleneck at the bottom of Bowerham Road and the Pointer roundabout.

Lancaster resident