I HAVE read to my horror about the proposed road changes by Bradford Council in North Street which are to remove the parking bays near to the row of shops, one of which is featured in your editorial run by Joanne and Geoffrey Smith-Towers as a cake shop – Fears new road plan could damage shops (Keighley News, February 9).

I am fully with them in their concerns as I have a business in Keighley and have to make daily visits to the bank in North Street, one of four banks close to the parking bays.

These ‘bays’ are essential as the parking facilities directly outside my bank (HSBC) are useless as the time limits are too short at a time when the bank is open and are targets for the traffic wardens. I often have to park some 300 yards away up Devonshire Street or Russell Street if spaces are not available in the bays by the shops.

I personally don’t think any scheme to ease traffic flow at that point would be practical as the bays are not actually in the road, are further back than the carriageway and are in line with the pathway and a cycle park by the exit from the bus station. Any reduction in parking facilities has to have a negative effect on businesses in the town and, in this instance, I am extremely concerned.

I don’t think there is the “traffic congestion” that warrants such action.

MIKE SWIFT Swift Memorial Services