How very sensible of you to recommend trams as the preferred solution for public transport in urban areas. I attach a note on the potential for integrating waste recycling with ultra light trams. If really good tram networks are installed (and the cost of installing lightweight rail has now been brought below £2 million per route kilometre double track) then, together with pedestrianisation, cycling and rickshaws, urban mobility can be brought to a very high level before having to bring in a few electric taxis.

Unfortunately I cannot get any of the relevant Departments in Government even to discuss these proposals, although Jonathon Porritt has now volunteered to take up the issue. I attach a copy of a letter to Hoon which still awaits a reply. The programme I am suggesting could easily be funded from a progressive transfer of money from the so-called Bus Service Operators Grant which spends some £400 million a year in subsidy to reduce the cost of fuel for diesel buses! The waste needs to be recycled urgently to prevent methane emissions to the atmosphere and to take some of the strain off landfill.