IT was good to see your interview with Portuguese fado singer Mariza.

I have been a fan of hers for years.

I was also amused that on the same day the Government announced it would be introducing a £51 million website called Transport Direct, which tells you how to get from A to B by public transport, thus cutting down on car pollution and increasing public transport usage by ten per cent.

Because I don't drive, I decided to go to Harrogate to see Mariza by train.

I could get there all right - provided I came back to York by 9.05pm.

But, Because Mariza went on stage at 8pm, this was hardly a viable option for me.

So I tried the buses, but there are none between York and Harrogate.

My only option was to go from York to Harrogate to Leeds, stay with friends, and come back to York next day.

Just think what that £51 million could do for local bus services. But then privatisation is the real reason no bus links exist between York and Harrogate.

Imagine the tables turned - Mariza in York, except that the main concert hall is closed, and me living in Harrogate and able to drive into York and pay a £7 parking charge as did your correspondent Steve Mansfield.

Let's be honest about the Galloways and the Lib Dem Council in York - they were voted in on the back of the anti-war movement and not because of their policies, which sit like rancid jam between two slices of Conservative and Labour bread - white, of course.

Time for a change?

Paul Furness,

Lower Darnborough Street,

Clementhorpe,

York.

Updated: 11:12 Thursday, August 05, 2004