LAST week Mr G Sansom criticised my objection to gas-guzzling cars. I think he misunderstood my letter on the subject, because I agree with much of what he wrote! My original letter never actually mentioned 4x4s, per se, as environmentally unfriendly vehicles, although your headline understandably did! I was attacking LIVIDs ?ALL Large Imposing Vehicles ? Irresponsible Drivers. I am sure Mr Sansom will have noticed how these, whatever their wheel arrangements, have become prevalent on our country roads in just the last couple of years ? and not just within the ring of the M25. Count them in Tavistock?s car parks ! Of course registered farmers, vets and many others who have to traverse fields and muddy tracks need suitable cars. I indeed wrote that ?many have a legitimate need for such vehicles?. Where Mr Sansom and I do agree is about those who do not need gas-guzzlers in which to go shopping or cart their children to school. They deserve to be more heavily taxed than Mr Gordon Brown proposed and they merit the acronym LIVID. Incidentally, as a country resident for most of my life, and with a farming son, I do, as Mr Sansom says, expect to come across agrivehicles. However, unlike the drivers of LIVIDs, actual farmers and their employees are quite a small proportion of residents in West Devon. Enough said! Noel Thompson The Beeches Mary Tavy
