Sir.-The Lib-Dem approach to the problem of overcrowded trains is to increase the number of passengers!

And their recipe for traffic jams is to increase the number of cars!

If the Liberal Democrats are so concerned about Basingstoke's commuters (survey report, The Basingstoke Extra), why are their councillors proposing to build an extra 20,000 homes in the borough, aimed at inviting thousands more people to move here?

If they bring thousands of people into the borough, many of whom will continue to work outside, they will dramatically increase the pressures on Basingstoke's trains and roads.

The Lib-Dem prospective parliamentary candidate has demonstrated why her councillors in Basingstoke are so wrong.

I suspect this was an accident, but it was amusing to see her achieving the unlikely contortion of putting her foot in her mouth and shooting herself in it at the same time.

-Stephen Reid, Centurion Way, Hatch Warren, Basingstoke.