IT comes as no surprise at all that Cllr Guy Harkin supports the introduction of motorway and town centre congestion charges.

The Labour Government and Labour-controlled local authorities across Britain are completely anti-motorist.

The idea behind the introduction of these charges is to try to force more people to use public transport, but that idea is flawed.

Only recently in the national press, it was announced that rail companies in the North-west are to take at least four trains per day out of service on the Manchester-Bolton-Preston-Blackpool line to ease congestion! Are congestion charges to be introduced on the railways?

If people in the Bolton area stop using their cars for commuting, they can forget about switching to the railways because, even before the removal of the above mentioned trains, existing services are filled to capacity.

Lastly, Cllr Harkin should note that Bolton is not, and never has been, a suburb of Manchester.

Stephen H Vernon

Bee Hive Green

Westhoughton