Brian Phillips of Transport 2000 should start living in the real world instead of preaching vitriolic idealism at us (Opinion, June 27).

Motorists are scroungers? The car is dead?

Has he tried carrying a week's shopping for a family of four on a bus or on the back of a bike?

Perhaps he does not need to take elderly, disabled relatives for hospital appointments

or transport children with bulky musical instruments to school functions or band practices in other towns.

There are a thousand and one reasons why cars are preferable to public transport.

We now have out of town shopping and fewer, more remote hospitals.

Many countryside towns do not have train stations or regular bus services. The rail system is limited and the bus service inadequate and unpredictable.

So until there are truly viable, inexpensive alternatives to car use, people like Brian Phillips should not chide us for speaking out against grossly unfair taxation which damages business and steals from the public.

-Andrew Danbridge Station Road, Bishopstone