YP Letters: Heed the call for fewer cars and better public transport

CONGRATULATIONS to Professor Frank Kelly for saying it and to Tom Richmond for repeating it: “Fewer cars, not just cleaner cars” (The Yorkshire Post, August 10). No doubt our remaining ‘J Bonington Jagworths’ will brand them both as heretics; but don’t most of us recognise that something must be done – and soon?

Tom mentions politicians’ reluctance to utter the term ‘public transport’ – let alone invest in it as part of a joined-up-thinking plan. They cannot, or will not, recognise that communities outside London also require something far more cerebral than endlessly bleating “competition”.

We now have many services in decline or totally withdrawn; where they still exist, fares are outrageous – a state of affairs which doesn’t tempt people out of their cars, despite the increasing chaos on the roads.

Weekdays see the pavements and verges of any town blocked and damaged by, mostly driver-only, illegally parked cars. For how much longer can all this go on?

From: John Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate.

SALES of new cars in the UK are down. In anywhere except the madhouse we inhabit, this would be good news.

With a large proportion of our vehicles made abroad, we still count the display and sale of such imports as one of our ‘industries’. With the country drowning in personal debt, it is still apparently to be regretted if some consumers are holding back from buying on credit.

We are looking at a small increase in the average retirement age of cars. Some will complain that this slows the introduction of newer technology which can improve fuel consumption. Offset against this we are slowing the turnover of vehicles which, even with perfect recycling, involves the huge environmental impact of smelting and re-manufacture.

No doubt we will be warned of job losses, probably by the same people who tell us we don’t have enough workers for vital posts. But running them for longer protects jobs in local repair garages rather than in Asian and European factories.

From: Patrica Schofield, Park Lane, Blaxton, Doncaster.

WE all know that Doncaster has a proud railway history as your Editorial stated (The Yorkshire Post, August 9), so it is very fitting that the new generation of engineers here in Doncaster will learn the special skills critical to the future of the railways.