BRITAIN'S 29 million motorists are reeling from yet another increase in fuel prices. Since the eve of the last Budget in March the price of a gallon of petrol has gone up by 49p and almost half of that is accounted for by extra tax.

It is little wonder that consumer anger is growing apace.

Motorists account for the great majority of the adult population - which adds up to a lot of voting power.

And, if this government is not careful, it will find itself on a catastrophic path to alienating the motoring public.

It is already being perceived as decidedly anti-car.

What it fails to consider is the wonderful sense of freedom the car has given to the British public.

People who despaired of waiting in the rain at bleak bus stops and run-down railway stations suddenly found they could afford a form of transport which took them to precise destinations in relative comfort and at the same time slashed journey times.

There is also a generation of car drivers that has hardly ever travelled on public transport.

It was born into an age where at least one family car was the norm.

Now drivers find themselves with a government which seems to clobber them at every turn.

It takes around 85p in tax from every pound they spend on petrol or diesel, putting Britain just behind Norway as having the most expensive fuel costs in Europe.

Drivers are also hit by steady increases in road fund licences, an extremely lucrative source of income for the Treasury.

And when they realise that only a fraction of the cash creamed off in road fund licences and fuel tax is actually spent on roads they feel cheated. Their anger increases when the government forecasts a future of toll roads and vast traffic-free areas.

The massive increase in car ownership has brought problems. But the answer is not to price motorists off the roads.

It has to be remembered that there are thousands of people in this country who rely on cars to get them to work.

They have no alternative because our public transport system is nothing short of disgraceful.

Beeching ripped up thousands of miles of railway lines cutting off, at a stroke, many rural areas. Bus companies are only interested in the more profitable routes and East Lancashire commuters know only too well how "bus wars" can complicate lives.

When we also take into account the fact that one in five Virgin trains runs late, is it any wonder that people refuse to leave their cars at home?

The government's first priority must be a properly integrated public transport system, one designed to get people to their destinations on time and in comfortable conditions and persuade them to leave their cars at home.

If it continues with its Draconian measures it is likely to go down in history as the government which took on the motorist and lost.

It should remember that all those log jams up and down the land contain an awful lot of voters, including many who have to drive to survive.

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