In response to Tom Hickmore (Letters, March 8), my friend, it is not cars per se that are bad.

Rather it is the demand the increasing human population places on the world, a population almost doubled in my own lifetime which I hope is about half way through, with luck and a fair wind.

If it were not cars - had they never been invented - it would be horses.

The gases they, and we, and indeed all animals, exude, may have done the same damage for all we know.

Vast areas would have had to have been put aside to provide the hay they would need for nourishment; and can you imagine the parking problem?

A survey from the 1820s predicted that, at its growth rate of that period, London would be knee deep in horse manure within 50 years and the resultant gases would have leaked into the atmosphere.

Despite its obvious dangers, the car has brought enormous freedom to countless people and most modern cars, as used in the West, produce minimally toxic exhaust.

All of us, in one way or another, depend on a car for our everyday life and many take seriously the responsible use of this freedom.

Remember, we have a licence to drive, not a right.

-Gerard Downing Beach Green, Shoreham