I SUSPECT that many people planning to boycott the petrol pumps on August 1 also complain about the level of congestion on Britain's roads.

Every York resident knows the scale of this problem and would agree that it must be tackled. The solution in the past has been to build more roads. But this has done nothing to reduce congestion and has merely fuelled an alarming increase in traffic.

The best solution is to persuade people out of their cars through a range of measures including high fuel prices to reflect the true environmental cost of motorised travel. The Government is only doing half the job in penalising the motorist without channelling all its fuel revenues back into maintaining the existing road network and providing cheap, reliable public transport for all.

W Dixon,

Barlow Street, York.