So, on Saturday I

a) wrote something about “the End of Leese”

b) fired off a letter to the MEN. They published it (and another good ‘un)

It’s great that Manchester City Council has been listening to people in the Fallowfield Loop consultation (“Public have big say on the future of ‘Yellow Brick Road'”, M.E.N., 20 February).

Of course, if they had listened to people on the Central Retail Park issue, they would not have spent 70 thousand pounds on barristers during a budget emergency.

The Fallowfield Loop crossed Hyde Road, which has recently been widened. The Hyde Road consultation was the one where replies such as “Awful – Following a confirmation of ‘Climate Emergency’ and previous promises to include cycling (and walking) in new road designs, this is terrible” and “No cycle lanes and steps down to the fallowfield loop?! Are you bonkers”  were classified as “neutral” in the Council’s desperate and cack-handed efforts to ignore people.

One bit of the article intrigued me.  Adam Maidment writes “The new bridge, which replaced a former railway bridge, provides better access for people walking or cycling along the Fallowfield Loop.

However, last June another of your reporters, Chris Slater, told us that  “The new bridge has previously been subject of a row over access. Plans to include a staircase from street level up to the bridge were ditched after concerns were raised over disabled access.”

I wonder if this is an example of the Council’s commitment to all access being equal, but some being more equal than others?

Dr Marc Hudson

editor Manchester Climate Monthly