AT some stage in the future, Worcester will be served by a network of park-and-rides, each strategically located in order to entice visitors out of their cars and on to waiting buses, thus slashing traffic congestion. That's the theory, anyway.

We wonder how this squares with Worcester City Council's latest rise in car parking charges. Simon Geraghty - in a disarming display of candour - concedes that fees are a major source of revenue, and are in fact the second biggest generator after council tax. He says that when park-and-ride expands, then the situation will be different.

It will indeed, but only if the logic is watertight. Assuming that further park-and-rides are built, and people flock to them, then it would seem, on paper, that a major source of money will dry up. So does that mean higher taxes in the future to make up the shortfall when the county council realises its dream of PR paradise?

The reality is this. The majority of car movements in Worcester are less than two miles' duration, which means that it is the locals, not visitors, causing the problem. And as everyone except the county knows full well, Perdiswell has hardly been an unqualified success. Worcester people are wedded to their cars and, at the moment, just don't want the hassle of lugging shopping around on public transport to the degree that the city council would like.

This newspaper is concerned that consumers will become so fed-up with charges that they will start to take their business elsewhere. Congestion is indeed a problem, but we really do need joined-up thinking if we are ever going to solve it.