TWICE in two days you have published letters from Susan Stockwell which blame motorists.

She makes sweeping assertions for which there is either no evidence or which are just plain wrong.

She argues for the provision of a park and ride for Bournemouth on the basis that ‘traffic congestion is driving away jobs and investment, poisoning unborn children through air pollution and keeping thousands under permanent lockdown through heart conditions and asthma’.

Whilst no one would deny the association between traffic pollution and health, there would appear to be no figures specific to BCP to support her argument and justify a park and ride on those grounds.

Even DEFRA, the one source she quotes has no figures for BCP.

In another letter she claims ‘private cars have been a terrible drain on the public purse for decades with so much taxpayers’ money having to be spent on them’.

Again she produces nothing to support this statement, probably because there are no figures which show a breakdown between private cars and other classes of motorists.

In fact such figures would be impossible to get. How for example would you apportion the cost of building and maintaining the highway network.

The only available figures show that in the year 2018/9 the exchequer collected nearly £50 billion in motoring taxation and only around £10bn was spent on roads.

There are other costs to the public associated with motoring such as congestion, effects on health. These have never been quantified.

So Susan you make some good points but then spoil it by your unfounded statements. If of course you do have evidence to support your claims then I look forward to seeing another letter.

R F COOPER

Laidlaw Close, Poole