REMEMBER back in 1981, when the Skipton bypass was opened. What was the first thing those silly motorists did? They went and drove upon it.

Now that the Government wants to spend some money on the road network by widening congested motorways, those who term themselves environmentalists are up in arms because they claim it will only encourage more traffic.

This is a curious argument. No-one will leap into their car and drive down the M6 because it has an extra lane. But people do have valid, legitimate reasons for wanting to head south and they want to do so as efficiently as possible without sitting in massive queues belching out fumes. Even in the heyday of railways, getting from Skipton to, say, Cardiff by train was an endurance test. Public transport can only beat the car in a small number of cases.

Adding a few feet to the side of existing motorways will hardly be the environmental holocaust to our countryside some have claimed. Nor will it encourage cars to take to the road. Rather it will encourage cars off other routes - if anybody is heading to Heathrow try taking the old roads off the M1 rather than the M25. These used to slice through towns and villages and were heavily congested; they are relatively quiet now.

Those who remember Skipton in a permanent state of gridlock in the 1970s will know just how beneficial a new road was - even if we nasty motorists insist on driving on it.