Your article on Great Ancoats St (“£9m spent… but is new ‘boulevard’ worth the hassle’, M.E.N., 10 March) was fascinating. Two additional points are worth making.

Firstly, in July 2019 the Neighbourhoods and Environment Scrutiny Committee called on the Executive to do a proper consultation on the scheme, saying what had been done was not adequate. They were ignored. At their 4 September 2019 meeting NESC officially recorded their unanimous disappointment with the Executive for ignoring their recommendation for more local consultation over the summer.

Secondly, one of the proposed alternative cycling routes forces cyclists and pedestrians to use the same narrow strips of land.  If (or rather when) a pedestrian is injured or worse, doubtless Manchester City Council will try to dodge the blame for this entirely predictable consequence of their own decisions. They will try to pin responsibility on some cyclist, rather than accept that the opportunity to create safe-for-everyone cycle lanes was wilfully missed.

Dr Marc Hudson

editor Manchester Climate Monthly