THE letter from Stuart Chapman, published in The Bolton News on April 24, is totally wrong about congestion charging.

I have known Cllr Roger Jones, both as a friend and political colleague, for more than a couple of decades and I can tell you he is a shrewd and sensible politician who can walk the political tightrope as well as anyone in the trade.

The reason for the AGMA four conditions outlined in his letter is that, like most other politicians, Cllr Jones knows full well that these are the only conditions in which the introduction of congestion charging would not be an act of political suicide - a fate to which he has no aspiration.

Mr Chapman whinges about the levels of taxation paid by motorists, most of which is general taxation. The tax on fuel does not go to pay for roads, any more than the tax on beer goes to build breweries.

Your contributor fails to notice how much tax payers' money has already been spent on motorists. The miles of motorway built since the late 1950s were financed by general taxation, not directly by taxes on motorists. And you only have to look on the Department of Transport website for particulars of the billions of pounds yet to be spent on road improvements. All of it from general taxation.

In almost any other area of human activity, you expect to pay more for scarce things. If you insist on buying strawberries in December or a holiday in the high season, you expect to pay more for the privilege. Economists call this the "rent to scarcity".

I do not see why the same principle should not apply to the use of overcrowded road space in the rush hour. It does work. There is hard evidence that traffic in central London averages three or four miles per hour faster since congestion charging was introduced.

Peter Johnston, Kendal Road, Bolton