I HAVE been amazed at the one-sided coverage of the increasing price of petrol.

To get about by car we demand more and more of our countryside is concreted over for roads, car parks and out-of-town shopping centres; we make our streets unsafe for children to play on; and we pump a cocktail of fumes into the air we have to breathe.

Compared to the costs to all of us resulting from driving, petrol looks like a bargain, not a rip off.

If higher petrol prices help persuade people to walk to their local shops rather than take the car to Clifton Moor, I for one will not be disappointed.

I doubt our local shopkeepers would be either.

Hugh Bayley should be defending making motorists pay a fair price for their petrol, not making excuses.

Paul Leake,

Longcroft,

Wigginton, York.

...I DISAGREE with the call to cut tax on petrol. The high tax on petrol was put on in the first place to encourage people to use less of something which is polluting the planet.

Although it doesn't seem to be working, with bigger and bigger cars and people still using cars where they could walk or use public transport, I still think it would be a retrograde step to reduce the tax.

One of the things the government could do is abolish the road tax, which, if paid half yearly, costs £170.50 a year, working out to 47p a day.

I would hate not to have a car, we find it very useful getting to places to spend leisure time where public transport could not take us.

But if a car did not cost money standing in a garage, we would be inclined to use public transport more than we do now.

T E Myers,

Lowick,

Woodthorpe, York.

...I READ your report 'Make drivers pay to use York' (July 5), with interest, but surely you've stepped back in history?

Aren't drivers already paying over the top to have the privilege to come to and work in York?

I worked in the city centre for 14 years. The biggest problem was finding a place to park at a reasonable price at the going rate of between £4.50 -- £6.50 a day.

For many young people from out of the York area this is taking a large part of their income just to work in the city centre.

Why not re-structure the car park charges so that the short stay parking (under three hours) is raised and the long stay charge (more than six hours) is reduced?

This would encourage local shoppers to use the public transport network - thus reducing the problem highlighted in your story. And the people working in the city would not have to pay the over-the-top daily charges.

I now work at the Designer Outlet at Naburn where there are no parking charges.

Ian Waite,

Conference Close, Malton.