Letter to the Editor

Graham sounds off at abysmal driving skills apparent in Norfolk and the high cost of fuel

Dear Ray,

I would like to address two issues regarding motoring that have been interesting me recently. Firstly, the Norfolk police announced road casualty figures for the County that I found quite shocking. Apparently, on average, seven people per month are killed on Norfolk's roads, whilst over three hundred others are injured. On the radio programme that this was discussed, nobody really seemed to know why this should be as these figures are in the top three counties of the country. My personal belief is that, because we have so few dual carriageways, drivers will always risk overtaking where they should not and there are so many opportunities afforded to us to overtake by the great number of lorries on our roads, especially during the beet months. There are many other reasons obviously but I think that the single carriageway factor is the main one.

The other subject that I would like to address is the price of fuel. Why are there such great differences in price throughout the country? One can buy exactly the same fuel at totally different prices when filling stations are less than ten miles away, viz Esso Downham Market and West Winch. And locally, we are asked to pay anything up to 6p or 7p per litre more than Norwich or anywhere in the Home Counties. Is it exploitation on behalf of our local garages through lack of competition or is there some other reason? I would genuinely like to know, so could somebody please enlighten me because I would really like to rid myself of this "getting ripped off" feeling that I've got.

Graham Forster