I WAS amazed at and annoyed by A. J. Cleavley's letter (December 12) regarding employees of Bury MBC who are in receipt of casual car user allowance receiving free parking in Bury. I wish to set the record straight.

I was one of the unfortunate employees who lost their essential car user allowance in April as I did not fulfil the new criteria of driving 2,000 miles a year on business.

I am a visiting officer in the access and assessment team within the housing department and in order to do my job I require a car. The visiting officers have to visit applicants on a daily basis all over the borough and sometimes outside the borough if these applicants are unfortunate enough to be in hospital.

Although we fall just short of the 2,000 miles per annum required we still need to have a car if we are to do our job effectively; we could not do it using public transport.

We have to have our cars insured for business use even though we are no longer in receipt of an allowance to cover this extra cost. I, for one, live only two miles from my place of work and if it were not for my job I would not need to have the extra expense of running a second car.

I would not use my car for work if I had to start paying for parking as I cannot justify the extra cost, and would therefore have to rely on public transport. I understand that this will have an adverse affect on the department but do not see why I should be out of pocket in order to do my job.

I understand that we are public servants, but does A. J. Cleaveley expect us to work for nothing?

SAMANTHA CARAHER,

Hollins, Bury.