A motorists' backlash swamped Birmingham City Council last night as drivers queued up to vent their anger at being described as too snobbish to use buses.
Letters and emails poured into The Birmingham Post from readers furious at being told by a scrutiny committee that their journeys into the city should be made "significantly less attractive" by the imposition of a London-style congestion charge.
The public response hit out at unreliable, filthy buses where drunkenness, drug taking and violence among passengers was commonplace. Several correspondents vowed never to use buses again after falling victim to abuse, muggings and theft.
The transportation scrutiny committee's main suggestion - that road pricing is the only way to force commuters out of their cars and on to the buses - was described as a Stalinist dictat by one reader.
Bill Church, from Malvern, accused committee chairman Martin Mullaney of "breathtaking arrogance" born out of political correctness.
Mr Church added: "Most of us need our cars, so I would urge Coun Mullaney and his team to improve traffic flows.
"When I have used public transport I have found it to be dirty, uncomfortable, expensive and unreliable. It usually offers to transport me from where I am not, to a place I don't want to go to, at a time I don't want to travel."
Retired BT worker Phil Uttley, from Rowley Regis, said unreliability of services was the main reason why people would not use buses rather than snobbery about public transport.
Kathy Morris, who travels by bus into Birmingham city centre to work, described her daily experiences as "horrendous".
She said: "I have been mugged on a bus. I have been intimidated by drunks, had to sit next to unsavoury characters, screaming kids, abusive teenagers, usually on dirty, overcrowded buses.
"I would suggest that in most cases avoiding buses is nothing to do with snobbery, just a wish to arrive at the destination in one piece and stress free."
Another reader, Mohammed Hasan, emailed The Post to "apologise for not using over-priced, filthy, inefficient and environmentally damaging diesel-burning buses which never get me anywhere on time".
Mr Hasan said: "I am not a chairman of anything, nor a council member, but I am a voter, a taxpayer, and a citizen. Perhaps that might count for something?"
Many of the criticisms levelled against buses by Post readers - that they are unreliable, dirty and unsafe - are highlighted in the scrutiny committee report, which says that congestion charging must go hand in hand with a dramatic improvement in the quality and performance of bus services.
Coun Mullaney (Lib Dem Moseley & King's Heath) last night remained unbowed.
He said: "We are saying that we have to make buses attractive for people to use. But there will always be a hard core of people who, come what may, will not use buses. This is why we need to look at the stick approach of congestion charging."
Coun Mullaney said: "You have the bus companies, the council and Centro and they are all blaming each other for things not working properly.
"The bottom line for the council is to have more bus priority measures to make the buses reliable. The bottom line for the bus companies is to provide clean, safe and reliable buses."
Gary Clarke, chairman of Centro-PTA, the West Midlands transport authority, welcomed the scrutiny report which, he said, represented a valuable contribution to the congestion debate.
