MORE WAR on the car is threatened as the government urges councils to deter commuters' vehicles and cut long-stay parking facilities in towns.

Fine - the noise and air pollution and congestion created by too many cars in the urban environment cannot continue unchecked.

But this need must be backed up by policies that make drivers want to give up their cars and seek the other options - in this case, leaving them at out-of-town car parks and using park-and-ride buses and trains.

It means they must be free, secure, comfortable and attractive. To us, that suggests that the de-regulation of bus services may have to be revised - as, being profit-driven, it is not motivated to offer no-cost, luxury services.

But a good example of what can be achieved is our own revived Blackburn-Clitheroe rail line which has relieved the roads of many commuters cars.

But if the carrot is not tempting enough, motorists will not be easily coaxed out of their cars - no matter how sharp the stick is in the form of reduced parking spaces and yellow lines.

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