IN response to Paul Hepworth’s recent letter suggesting we all use alternative transport to the car, I’ll explain the reasons people don’t.

Those also caught cycling in the flash flood on Monday will understand that spending half an hour clearing out the airing cupboard and wringing rainwater out of my underpants was not the most relaxing way to start my evening. And should those unable to pedal a 20 mile commute be left housebound?

As for public transport, that misses the essential point that a car is about being free to go where I want, when I want - not where the council decides matters and when trade unions consider to be acceptable working hours.

The relentless taxation on the motorist hasn’t forced people out of their cars and neither will extending people’s journeys by deliberately choking the city’s arteries.

As for future generations having to live with congestion charges, they will only have to put up with it if they’re stupid enough to vote for idiots that would introduce it. I for one certainly won’t.

I want leaders that understand the simple fact that everything in life is elsewhere and you get there in a car. If you want to reduce congestion with the York Central scheme there is a simple, cheap way to guarantee success: don’t build it.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York

Grayling has no idea on public transport

LET me set the scene. The 14.08 Cross Country service last Sunday from Edinburgh Waverley to Plymouth.

Train packed, disgruntled passengers who have paid £130 for a ticket and nowhere to sit. And then the final straw - just south of Berwick, a public announcement that only one toilet on the train is working.

I was so pleased that I got off at York. Come on Mr Grayling. You clearly have no idea how dire our public transport is.

June Hutt,

Bishopthorpe, York