We will always need cars so stop penalising motorists – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOUR correspondent Claire Haigh, chief executive of Greener Journeys, makes her case for increased use of public transport, and I cannot argue against the fact that more people on buses would mean less people in cars (The Yorkhsire Post, August 3). But then she goes on to show that she is following the current trend against the private car by advocating workplace parking levies and road pricing along with an increase in fuel duty.

Bus services are not universal to serve every town and village and never will be, so the 
private car is essential for many people, especially in rural 
areas.

Also the references to carbon emissions does not factor in that cars have become progressively cleaner with every new model that is produced, and we are moving towards a 
predominance of electric vehicles and zero pollution in the near future.

The private car is a vital element of the whole transport picture in the UK, and its drivers should not be treated as an inexhaustible source of revenue through punitive charging regimes.

There are some 38 million drivers in the UK – all potential voters – and one day soon they may just say “Enough”.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor