Letter: Law favours motorists far too much

Sir: Every minute of every day, motorists cause massive obstruction of pedestrians and cyclists, to the extent that children are not allowed to walk the streets and most people consider cycling too hazardous.

What are the police doing about this infringement of people's rights? Well, this weekend in Brighton, supporters of Reclaim The Streets attempted to redress the balance a little, making a few streets more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly for a few hours, and the police reacted by arresting 80 of them ("Significant Shorts", 26 August). The previous Saturday an extremely pedestrian-unfriendly crossroads near here was liberated from motorist inconsiderateness for three hours, and likewise the police were unsupportive, and added their bit to noise nuisance, air pollution and global warming by filming the liberators from a helicopter for two hours.

It is becoming clear to very large numbers of people that throughout the land the police are becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution, working for the roads lobby rather than for the electorate. I call for the dismissal of those responsible for these misappropriations of taxpayers' money and their replacement by democratically and environmentally conscious authorities.

The whole point of government should be to supply that which the self- interested market cannot, not to exacerbate its effects.

ROBIN P M CLARKE

Moseley, Birmingham