In reply to the letter by Nigel Davis with the title ‘Cars are popular with voters and our council should accept this’ (Letters, March 20), our city is now considered to be the third most congested in Britain and the Government wants an extra 20,000 houses built in the city.

It seems obvious that something has to give and the most logical answer is, apart from trying to get the Government to change its mind, that internal relief roads will probably have to be carved through the city with all the damage and distress that will cause.

We already have a relatively intensive public transport bus system in place and the aesthetic of North Street has been largely ruined as a result of an almost continual conveyor belt of buses going up and down it. It is indisputable that cars have, to a great extent, ruined the appearance of towns. They have, to a greater or lesser extent, destroyed people’s health as a result of pollution, and they destroy the sense of peace –not to mention the amount of car accidents there are.

In the real world there are people for whom having a car is essential – that I understand – so we have to use our minds to find ingenious solutions to enable us to square the circle.

Nicholas Dunn-Coleman, The Droveway, Hove