Sir, – John Morley is right to state that “the damage to the local economy must be severe” D&S letters, May 25) when commenting on the lack of signs on the new A1(M).

There are more than 100 jobs at Leeming Bar Services which are now under a cloud because of the Highways Agency’s position.

We welcome the new road, as we did when the Leeming bypass was announced in 1959. Then we relocated from the village to the new road, with some advice from local planners who saw the value in supporting an existing local business. Hambleton and North Yorkshire councils have been equally supportive in this planning application, and indeed Harrogate Borough Council is adamant that they do not need nor want another services in the open countryside in their area.

The Highways Agency’s preferred option is a site equidistant between two service areas. Leeming Bar is not equidistant between Wetherby and Barton Services, but it is only five minutes travel away from equidistant, and equidistant would mean the loss of farmland. Leeming Bar is a developed “brownfield” site, 27 miles north of Wetherby, normally an “ideal” distance between services.

The Highways Agency say that being more remote from a junction might make us less attractive. But that has not been a concern at Ferrybridge (A1), Peterborough (A1), Grantham (A1), Donnington (M1) services. We’re proud to have built Leeming Bar Services into an iconic location over 50 years. But we need signs to say where we are.

The Highways Agency say that we can have signs southbound because that’s a trunk road, but not northbound because that’s a motorway, and the 2002 regulations state just that.

There was a services sign on the A1(M) at Boroughbridge for Morrisons supermarket petrol station, up for over 10 years before Wetherby services opened and motorists were running out of fuel before getting to Rainton, but when we pointed that out as a precedent for a departure from regulations, they took the sign down.

And finally the Highways Agency state that it can’t do anything until the public inquiry has reported. Not even leaving up temporary signs from the roadworks, because the regulations state... It says it can’t interfere with the inspector’s findings, but isn’t it missing the point?

Even if we don’t win the public inquiry, we’ll still be here, trying to make a living, although I fear that any new jobs gained at Baldersby or Kirby Hill will be matched by losses at Leeming Bar.

CARL LES Leeming Bar Services