Sir, – I refer to the letter from A Wilson of Brompton (D&S, May 29) about the link road for the proposed development to the north of Northallerton and traffic queues at Low Gates Railway Crossing.

The link road is not a critical factor regarding whether or not the development goes ahead. It is small potatoes – the cost is only £11m or thereabouts. North Yorkshire County Council will, as the highways authority, make a sensible decision as to when it needs to be finished, and matters about its benefits are just being used as marketing hype or a distraction.

For example, ignore the extra traffic generated by the retail and employment development, and ignore the general trend for more vehicles on UK roads. Instead, let’s say some of the new house owners on the development have a car, or perhaps two. The traffic through Low Gates and other junctions in Northallerton will go up by say X vehicles per hour.

Supposing the developers finish the link road, the traffic then goes down by say Y vehicles per hour. But until the link road is finished, there no improvement by Y vehicles per hour.

As the link road has been designed only to neutralise the traffic created by the development and not to improve the current situation, Y is to equal X for the full development.

Therefore, the traffic through Low Gates and the Northallerton junctions will in time get worse, get better and then stay the same as it is in 2015.

ALAN McKEE, Brompton, Northallerton.