The letters page inevitably includes problems over the shortage of space allocated to traffic: be it parking space on our high streets and retail parks, or not enough actual road space, thereby causing congestion.

Mr King supporting Mr Musey’s calls for more road space, is simply the latest (‘Writer’s views make sense’, Opinion, July 30). But just where will all this extra space come from in our hugely crowded city?

One mooted idea is for the council to remove bus lanes. These are invariably on roads managed by TfL rather than Enfield Borough Council and were part of a strategy to let the bus take the short-term strain to stop London grinding to a complete halt while necessarily longer-term investment was made in the tube and overland train systems. It worked, with passenger journeys up roughly one third over a decade.

Mr King also highlights the many billions motorist contribute to the economy, but he doesn’t mention the £1,500 or so net cost paid by society for every UK car on the road. Additional costs come from externalities such as noise and air pollution and accidents. If you are in any doubt, consider if you know someone with asthma or worse, one of the 29,000 premature UK deaths now estimated to be due to poor air quality, noting that is a figure dwarfing the estimated 12,000 from the Great Smog. You may have also seen or experienced a car accident and its related issues.

Road charging was politically ruled out some years back, following Professors David Begg’s reasoned call, but change there inevitably must be.

Traffic is highly subsidised by other people and other regions, and will be by future generations.

I really don’t think we can blame Enfield Council for this one.

K Brown

Palmers Green