I WAS disappointed to read the comment in Bucks Free Press, entitled 'Buses and trains are no alternative' (September 15), and the article in the Bucks Free Press Midweek entitled 'Councillors criticised' (September 19).

I WAS disappointed to read the comment in Bucks Free Press, entitled 'Buses and trains are no alternative' (September 15), and the article in the Bucks Free Press Midweek entitled 'Councillors criticised' (September 19). Both articles are factually incorrect and project the wrong image of the county council.

Firstly, Buckinghamshire County Council's policy is not to push the use of public transport to all motorists in the county.

As a predominantly rural county, Buckinghamshire County Council understands the needs of motorists, many whom could not survive without the use of the private car.

Also, we are keen to give people the choice of whether to use public or private transport and are therefore not trying to drive all cars off the road.

If this is what the Bucks Free Press think we are planning, I now understand why they are so against it.

However, the county council is well aware of the environmental impact of increased transport on our road networks and positively encourages the use, whenever possible, of public transport or environmentally-friendly forms of transport.

Interestingly, during the recent fuel crisis, the council's passenger transport service dealt with a surge of enquiries about public transport as one in five drivers left their cars at home and travelled into work by bus or train.

Secondly, the assumption that important meetings were cancelled because county councillors cancelled their meetings last week as they were unable to attend due to the petrol shortage is wholly misleading. Only two meetings were postponed during the fuel crisis, both of which did not have an immediate effect on the running of the council, and have since been re-arranged.

However, it should also be mentioned that it is not deemed appropriate to unnecessarily waste petrol supplies for non-essential work while the council focused its energies on ensuring that essential services continued.

Finally, praise should be extended to staff who rose to the challenge and kept services operating throughout the fuel crisis despite the difficulties.

Schools remained open and social services staff managed to keep essential care services operating to protect the most vulnerable people in the community, while staff volunteered for duty on petrol station forecourts alongside police officers to make sure that motorists working for essential services got priority treatment when fuel supplies were short.

County Cllr W J Y Chapple

Chairman

Environmental Services

Committee

Buckinghamshire County

Council

Glenfield Close

Chiltern Park

Aylesbury