YOUR front-page story headlined Petrol Panic Hits City (Tuesday, September 13) brings back memories - it could have been written in the 1970s, during the OPEC oil crisis, or either of the decades between then and now.

The Green Party has been urging both Labour and Conservative governments to get to grips with the ever-more urgent oil crisis for 30 years. Mr Blair's government should be planning now for when oil is even more expensive and in short supply. Instead, they are calling for a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

Neither increasing oil supply short-term nor cutting the petrol tax is the answer to the problem. We need to dramatically reduce the oil dependency of our economy - which makes us vulnerable to periodic shocks and disruption such as this - rather than continue to massively subsidise motorists.

Official statistics show that between 1987 and 2000, the total costs of motoring in real terms had risen by only 5.6-7.2 per cent. The same figures also reveal that bus and coach fares increased by 18 per cent, and rail fares by 21 per cent, in real terms. The Green Party believes this is patently unsustainable and irresponsible.

Road traffic accounts for 25 per cent of CO2 emissions, and massively adds to the pollution and climate change that will so devastate the environment and the world economy. This government's short-sighted policies of encouraging more oil production will only encourage people to continue to use cars more and add to the problem. This policy is typically at odds with the New Labour rhetoric on "tackling" climate change.

If Gordon Brown was really concerned about our long-term future, he would introduce a tax regime favouring bio-diesel made from recycled vegetable oil, which reduces CO2 emissions by 90 per cent according to DTI figures. He would also adopt the Green Party policy of shifting tax liability from car ownership on to fuel use by scrapping the tax disc and increasing petrol duty.

When all the oil has run out, as it will in the not-too-distant future, what will Worcester's motorists do?

CHRIS LENNARD,

Worcester Green Party.