IN reply to Mike Hooper's letter in last week's Times, I suspect that I am the 'gentleman' he refers to and I have a name.

It was at the bottom of the letter, as it will be here. I also have a phone number, which is on a leaflet for the Tavistock Car Club as I have recently become the car's caretaker, and it is being widely distributed this week.

The leaflet is an attempt to increase use of the car, which, as he rightly points out, is low at the moment.

I'm sorry he hasn't received a reply to his enquiries (though I addressed the financial issue in my previous letter), but he could give me a ring. Come on Mike. It's good to talk.

One piece of good news I would be able to give him, (again) is that he really is not paying for the car, so the question of whether 'we' can afford it does not arise.

The car is funded and paid for by a national, not for profit, co-operative shared ownership scheme, so Mike is not paying for it in any meaningful way.

The other piece of good news for Mike is that he is clearly exercised by seeing the car sitting in the Guildhall space every day.

Well, he need see it no more because the car has now been moved to the Bedford Car Park.

So he won't have to see it and get wound up by it any more — unless, of course, he makes the special effort of a daily trip to the Bedford Car Park!

John Stuart

Down Road

Tavistock