You can talk the walk, but reality is different!

Frankly, I would love to walk to school but where "Biker" assumes we all live on estates with strategically placed local schools, alongside roads with 30mph speed limits or less, with the added luxury of pavements, the reality is rather different.

Some of us would need to either walk through muddy fields, or navigate the de-restricted speed limits roads so adored by boy racers, with no benefit of pavements for protection. This with two primary school-aged children and a two-year-old toddler, is, believe me, no joke! But if "Biker" wishes to help out, he is more than welcome.

When my children's nearest school, Affetside, closes, my journey will take on nightmarish proportions, for schools around here are full. From September, I will be required to drive 28 miles a day doing my schools runs. Even "Biker" would undoubtedly baulk at walking this far.

The second assumption "Biker" makes is a blatantly sexist one. For "parents" read "mothers", for "mothers" read "people who have nothing to do all day". Astonishingly, in the 21st century, the majority of mothers not only work outside the home, but also do what is known in the trade as the "second shift" of routine family maintenance at home.

So, along with "Biker", I too have to commute. The only difference being that I have to get my children to school and take my toddler to nursery first, the kind of multiple responsibility and tasking that women do every day, enabling their menfolk to go to work unhindered by such domestic trivia.

To walk (or even use public transport) to Affetside, Bromley Cross and Bolton, and still start lecturing at 9.30am, would seriously test the skills of anyone. Still, at least I can sleep well knowing that you and I travel in opposite directions, "Biker", and my selfish use of the mighty car doesn't affect your journey into Bury.

DAWN ROBINSON-WALSH,

Harwood.