I TOTALLY agree with your comments on Mr David Chaytor's reasoning on the Government's proposals to tax parking at the Trafford Centre to save Bolton and Bury town centres. He talks about an even playing field when Bolton had free parking.

The then Council decided to charge for parking in the town centre streets and outlying car parks. Where is this money to be spent? Not I hope in another round of pension and early retirement enhancements for Town Hall staff, teachers, police, firemen and further waste on the town hall square.

To tax the motorist yet again for driving through the town to improve public transport may seem a perfect way to raise funds, but why must the motorist have to provide these funds?

I admit that Public Transport is is in need of improvement, but the latest idea to provide bus lanes from Bolton to Leigh on a road that is too narrow seems ludicrous.

Two weeks ago I made the journey from Hulton Lane to town in 25 minutes. This journey takes 10 minutes by car, and on the face of it speeding up bus travel by providing bus lanes is the solution.

But if you analyse the journey, the driver spent 10 minutes driving (exactly the time taken by car) and 15 minutes collecting fares. If taxes made twice as many people use the bus, the driver would then spend 30 minutes taking fares and the journey would now take 40 minutes. Perhaps the fault with public transport is therefore the lack of conductors!

Mrs J Drakley

Normanby Street, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.