Drivers hoping for better times.

SUGGESTIONS on behalf of the city council that Liverpool's continued congestion reflects the economic growth of the city in the last couple of years sound like an admission of bafflement.

Quite frankly, we are baffled too.

Liverpool's road system is for the most part as good, and in many ways better, than comparable large provincial cities that have made strides in getting their traffic moving more freely.

And we are quite sure that our city planners and highways engineers are every bit as competent as their opposite numbers up and down the country.

We would even like to say better, just as a matter of local pride.

We would suggest, though - more as matter of gut feeling rather than anything more scientific - that similar figures drawn up next year may perhaps be considerably better.

The DfT figures were drawn up over the last three years, during which a lot of the city centre main routes were dug up of diverted for one reason or another. The council made the best of a bad job by branding it the Big Dig, and thankfully it now seems to be over. We look forward to some properly researched figures showing how effective it has all been in keeping the city's traffic moving.

Now comes the news that money has been released for the Hall Lane by-pass, which should improve access to the city centre from the east to a considerable degree, especially as and when the controversial Edge Lane improvement plans go through.

In the long term, though, big questions remain to be answered. The government would dearly like to see congestion charging introduced outside London, but the resounding rejection of charging plans for Manchester seem to have stalled that particular plan for many years.

It's going to be a long debate ahead.

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