In all the furore about cutting petrol prices, some key facts are being missed out.

Firstly, it is claimed petrol tax is just there to clobber drivers. In fact, it's to encourage them to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

Secondly, 60 per cent of Britain's poorest households don't own cars, so cutting petrol prices won't help them. The 1991 census showed more than 40 per cent of people in Brighton don't own a car.

Thirdly, on the government's own figures, the cost of motoring has not changed in real terms in the last 25 years, but train fares have gone up by 53 per cent and bus fares by 87 per cent.

The Government should stand firm on petrol prices and not give in to motorists.

But it should spend much more on giving people better alternatives to car use.

-Brenda Pollack, regional campaigns co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth South East, Queens Road, Brighton