I would like to reply to Councillor Douglas Edwards' letter in last week's Chronicle. The motion presented to Monmouthshire Council by Councillor Phylip Hobson (Lib Dem Leader) proposed councillors pay the equivalent of their Road Fund Licence to park at County Hall. Their logic was that our carbon footprint would be reduced since we would be encouraged to use public transport or buy more efficient cars.

Conservative, Labour and Independent Councillors all voted against the motion, recognising flaws in their argument and no reduction in carbon emissions - for example

•Îf councillors paid a parking fee the disincentive to travel by car as often as they liked had gone; They could also park on adjoining roads and escape paying;

•There are very few practical alternatives to using a car in a large rural county;

• Councillors roles entail meetings around the County, not just at Cwmbran;

•The energy and raw materials in making a new car, when someone will buy and use your old one.

•Using bus and train, I should have to allow four hours total travelling time to attend what could be a two hour meeting.

Councillor Edwards was obviously displeased that I referred to Councillor Hobson's Cuban holiday.

Since 2003 I've been no further than Derby and whilst I begrudge no-one a holiday, it's unfair to fly long haul and then pass judgement on those who barely drive or travel anywhere. To illustrate the point I used carbonfootprint.com and found his trip to Cuba (1.72 tonnes of CO2) was equal to me making 170 return trips to County Hall from Gilwern.

In addition, councillor Hobson's motion applied to the 43 Councillors (easy target and good press), but not the carbon emissions made by the 4,500 council employees travelling to work. I don't believe that employees should have to pay to park either, but for Councillor Edwards to state it was part of a genuine attempt to implement MCC's obligations to counteract global warming and limit CO2 emissions beggars belief.

We live in a county of nearly 90,000 and the best they came up with involved 43 people! Why not campaign for greater transport integration, new rail lines, energy conservation, eating local and seasonal food, supporting local businesses, Welsh tourism, domestic energy production, product packaging etc?

Climate change is a matter of life and death, so it's disappointing to see unworkable proposals that are more about getting in the papers and cultivating voter image. Let's get on with things that will make a difference to the people in our wards and stop politicising council business. We've had some relevant and apolitical motions on post offices (Simon Howarth), undergrounding of power lines (Graham Down) and unadopted sewers (mine) and none sought any press coverage before or after the event.

Lastly, I've seen Lib Dem councillors still driving to County Hall, so I would like to offer Councillor Edwards an olive branch and a challenge.

If he is willing to use public transport to County Hall for three months, I will be happy to give the equivalent of his proposed parking charge to our chairman's charity.