The debate concerning four-wheel drive vehicles brings up one or two related issues:

Parking large vehicles often takes up two useable spaces and perhaps larger vehicles should pay a double residential fee and those with small cars should pay only half.

There is also the problem of obtaining planning permission for the creation of a parking space in front of one's home.

With double-fronted houses it is a temptation but often the depth of the street means conversion of half to a driveway is short by a foot or so. Permission denied!

Perhaps the time has come to deliberately create short driveways in front of houses in order to encourage short cars.

Cars' "bums" hanging over on to pavements would, of course, be subject to huge fines to discourage use by larger cars.

Developers are encouraged to downgrade parking provision in the current climate and perhaps designing spaces only for small cars is the way ahead.

If large cars were driven out of use, it would obviously benefit pollution control and would also help to create parking availability on streets in a country which was, unlike the home of the car (America) not constructed for the purpose of accommodating cars.

Europe in general has been put together human-scale, walkably and sociably. We have for too long emulated American values and styles.

To continue to give overlarge, bullying, show-off cars deference is to continue to live in thrall to that overbearing, bullying, show-off country.

And maybe that is one of the best reasons of all to push large-car use into the past.

-Valerie Paynter, Hove