WITH reference to your debate 'Should we pay to drive in York?' (June 6), Denise Raven's article was intended to be set against Matthew Page's case for road pricing, but it effectively demonstrated just why direct charging is urgently needed.

At present, we pay for roads indirectly through fuel and vehicle duties and council and national taxation. This causes two problems. First, the cost of driving is not felt directly in the way it is when one pays for a loaf of bread, a cooker, a cinema ticket or a train trip, even though road-space is a commodity like any other, and in shorter supply.

Second, the confusion between the charges for road-space and those for general Government purposes leads to unresolvable argument about whether motorists are paying too much (Ms Raven is probably right on direct costs, but research suggests that when congestion and environmental costs are taken into account drivers are not paying enough).

The solution is for the entire roads system to become British Roads plc. Then the plc would provide space and maintain the network, and every mile driven would be paid for in exactly the same way that we pay for our telephones, subject to a surcharge for external effects such as noise and to VAT and Corporation Tax. This would be the most beneficial of all privatisations.

Although I grant Ms Raven the freedom to choose her lifestyle, I deny anyone the right to do so at other people's expense through the massive cross-subsidisation that makes a mockery of 'market forces'. If people had to pay exactly what it costs (a lot in a city rush-hour, very little on a rural road at midday in February) they would think again about non-essential car trips.

Jonathan Tyler,

Passenger Transport Networks,

Stonegate, York.