SIR – As we approach the annual budget statement, I do despair regarding what we are about to hear from our current chancellor?
It would appear those currently in power and their predecessors have been attempting to turn back the clock!
During my childhood in the 1950s there were just two car owners in my street, the majority using bicycles or the slightly better off utilising motorcycles or public transport to get to their place of work.
Are we witnessing a return to those post-war days of austerity?
With the average outlay of owning and running a car increasing at three times the rate of inflation, now at about £6,500 annually or £129 per week, due to constant escalation in road tax duty, insurance, routine maintenance and more intensive MOT tests, plus excessive parking fees/ fines and finally petrol at 1.40p a litre or a staggering £7 per gallon approx in real terms.
How long will it be before the public roads are exclusively the realm of the well-heeled as in the 50s and those benefiting from a guaranteed inflation proof income from the State, the later having their motoring financed by those very people progressively being priced from the highways.
ROBIN SMITH
Worcester
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