BT's refusal to supply broadband services to the villages around York is harming business and contributing directly to traffic congestion and pollution in the York area.

Effective monopolies such as BT must not be allowed to ignore the responsibilities they have to the wider community. By refusing to install the necessary hardware BT is quite deliberately disadvantaging rural areas.

If businesses cannot operate effectively from outlying villages because high speed internet access is denied them, they have to move into York.

There must also be thousands of employees living in rural areas who would be happy to do, say, half their work at home if they had the high speed internet access that is now available to the residents of urban areas. Furthermore, there are no doubt businesses who would consider moving out of the centre if it did not disadvantage their operations.

All this would relieve pressure on York's roads.

Instead of planning further developments in the green belt and encouraging the building of further industrial estates, both of which simply increase traffic congestion as people travel to and from work in the city, York council might better focus its attention on ensuring that outlying villages have full access to broadband technology.

Christian Vassie,

Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.

Updated: 11:47 Tuesday, November 12, 2002