PLANS to scrap Otley’s one-way system have been drawn up “behind the backs” of residents who support it.

That is the claim being made by some householders following the news that town and city councillors are calling for a return to two-way traffic for Charles Street and Walkergate.

Councillors have asked Leeds City Council to make the change to both alleviate traffic congestion and tackle a linked rat-running problem.

Introduced last October, the one-way system has proven hugely unpopular with motorists and residents in streets like Crow Lane, which have suffered a surge in through-traffic.

But for those actually living in Walkergate and Charles Street, it is a different story.

Former police traffic officer and resident Sylvia Rudley told this newspaper shortly after the system’s introduction that it had made “an incredible difference” by cutting noise, pollution and arguments.

Walkergate resident Anne Dean, 66, fears those benefits could go, and is furious about being kept “out of the loop”.

She said: “We haven’t been consulted in any of the decision making about this and I don’t think they’ve given the system a long enough chance.

“The traffic isn’t as bad as they’re making out and people are getting used to it now.

“I think we’re the forgotten few down here but we’re the ones who have had to live with all the problems for years, not the drivers from the other side of Otley who are complaining.

“Someone should have come and talked to us and explained what they were thinking of doing.

“These plans they’re discussing will affect our lives and could put us back in the same old scenario of constant stand-offs and arguments between drivers, air pollution and all the rest of it.

“We’re council tenants here too, paying hundreds to the council every month.

“If they go ahead and scrap the one-way system they should at least pay for our properties to have decent windows and make sure they’re noise and pollution-proof.”

Otley Town Council leader, Cllr John Eveleigh (Lab, Ashfield), is adamant the one-way system has to go, but is also pushing for alternative measures to help residents.

He said: “It is clear the one-way system didn’t work and caused more problems for the town as a whole than the problem it was supposed to solve.

“However, I have enormous sympathy with the residents of Walkergate and Charles Street and there needs to be other mitigation, particularly at the pinch-points.”