The papers are full, once again, with news of more attacks on car owners as plans to charge daily tolls to enter inner city zones are seriously discussed.

Given the state of the main roads into Brighton at the moment, I should think it would be more equitable if we car drivers presented the city with demands for payment.

This is to offset the damage the terrible road surface does to our cars, not to mention our backs and other tender parts of our anatomy.

Many of the roads which we have to use when going about our daily business are little more than cart tracks disguised as main thoroughfares.

Bad enough if you are a car driver but what if you are one of the group of cyclists who are encouraged to follow the pretty pink paths into the town centre?

Some of their comments could not be safely repeated in a family newspaper but they leave me in no doubt that cyclists are less than impressed.

There is going to be a very nasty accident soon when a cyclist hits a pothole and bites the dust right in front of a vehicle.

It may be the cyclists who are complaining about the state of the roads at the moment but if the toll charges are eventually imposed on cars many elderly folk will suffer.

They rely on their cars to give them independence and will find they are effectively barred from city centres because they cannot afford the tolls.

There are supposed to be exemptions for the disabled but what about those who do not qualify for a disabled badge even though they do need transport?

For many elderly folk their car is a passport to a social life. They often help out with other older folk who do not drive and with grandchildren.

The motorist has been hit with so many extra costs over the past few years it is astonishing there are still so many people who can afford to drive.

If the extra money raised were to be spent on the road system, or even on providing reasonable alternatives, possibly drivers would not feel so bitter.

Too often they feel like a source of easy money to fund grandiose schemes of so-called "traffic calming" or "traffic management", which to many ordinary, sensible citizens look like traffic mismanagement.

If a road toll is imposed on top of all the other aggravations, it is likely drivers will simply take themselves off to smaller, more welcoming towns and city centres will start to empty.

Traffic free maybe but no customers, no visitors and eventually no life.

Traffic jams are more often than not caused by selfish parking rather than the volume of traffic.

Perhaps the appearance on our streets of more traffic wardens will have the required effect and Brighton and Hove will not join the rush to become car free.

I've no doubt I will be told I am a selfish car owner, only concerned with my own comfort and to blazes with the environment.

I am merely living in the hope of a balanced outlook on the needs of the residents, especially the less able, the older folk and visitors, who are the life blood of towns and cities such as ours. I am seeking an assurance that car ownership will not revert to being the prerogative of the wealthy.

Already the RAC is warning that the public transport system in London cannot accommodate one more person.

Try telling Ken Livingstone that and you may get a dusty answer!