THE Labour Party has said it will not 'punish' car drivers as it seeks to persuade motorists to radically change their driving habits. Shadow transport secretary Clare Short this week wrote to Fleet News outlining its broad transport policy.

The letter followed a Fleet News story (May 31) in which leading figures from across the fleet industry drew up a seven-point company car action plan for a future Labour government and called on it to implement a long term transport strategy. Fleet chiefs called for:

In her letter Short said that reports in some sections of the press that the Labour Party was planning to target the company car were an example of 'mischievous and sloppy journalism', but that people must be encouraged to travel into town centres and to work in much improved public transport. She added: 'Our commitment is to set up a specialist advisory group to review how we can modify our taxes to encourage this shift and to provide further incentives to use more environmentally friendly cars and fuels. The car cannot be wished away and proposals that simply seek to punish car use will not win public support. Nor would they be fair.'