Letters: Fairer alternatives to motorway tolls

From Mr James Douet

Sir: The discussion about motorway tolls has again brought the Automobile Association on to the radio and newspapers, as a spokesman for its members, pressing for greater spending on roads.

The AA chooses to call its customers "members", but they merely buy its repair and other services. These "members" do not give the AA any mandate to speak on their behalf. When it does so, it is actually speaking in its own interests as a commercial organisation that depends for its increasing revenue on more roads and more road users. It is no more the disinterested voice of car owners than the Road Federation.

I am a road user who opposes the unending road-building programme, and the AA can speak for me when Bernard Matthews speaks for turkeys.

Yours sincerely,

James Douet

Bristol

1 August