From last Tuesday all petrol has to contain 2.5% bio-fuel. It may be a good idea to make motoring greener but what effect will it have on our car engines? My 1980’s car was never designed to run on bio-fuel and being forced to run my car on the new petrol mix is a journey into the unknown.

There are plans to raise the amount of bio-fuel in petrol to 5% in a couple of years. If the planet is in danger why not go to the higher level straight away or can saving the planet wait? Could the initial level be just to see if the new-fangled petrol will actually work or if it will ruin lots of engines?

While driving around I’m fully aware of the damage being done to the environment by the exhaust gasses from my car but now there is something else on my conscience. There are hungry people starving and we are converting what could have been food into petrol. I wonder how many people will go hungry so we can commute to work each day and I wonder how many people went hungry so the customers could come to the complex to do their shopping?

Changing the petrol is the wrong approach to cutting exhaust emissions as it would be far better to stop the unnecessary journeys in the first place. During the recent school holidays the roads have had far fewer cars on them so why not tackle the problem of the school run instead. Making children walk to the nearest school rather than driving them to schools far from their homes would make the children healthier and cut pollution in one stroke. It’s about time the powers that be started providing places at schools closer to home for the children.

From what I can see the inclusion of bio-fuel in petrol is just a punitive measure designed to make it look as if something is being done to tackle the supposed problem of global warming. Feeding people and keeping the youngsters fit is more important. Have you had any problems with the new petrol in your car?