MY Ford Ka suffered a flat battery while parked near Southampton University on the afternoon of December 18. When I called the RAC, I was amazed to hear it would take four hours to get someone out to fix it. I told them I was a woman alone in the car and it would soon be dark, but that made no difference.

Thankfully, I managed to contact a friend who offered to get me started with jump leads and I was on my way again within half an hour.

It was an ordinary day - no rain, frost or hurricanes to disrupt life. Goodness knows how long it takes the RAC to turn up in bad weather. Has this emergency service' reduced its patrols through cost-cutting?

I shall certainly review my membership when it next falls due.

KAREN WOODS, Fareham.

An RAC spokesman replies: We are sorry to hear that Miss Woods is unhappy with the service she received.

Upon calling us to report her breakdown, we advised that we believed we would be able to attend her vehicle within 90 minutes, although due to an unexpectedly busy day in the area, we felt it important to set her expectation that, worst case scenario, there could be delays of up to three hours.

However, taking on board her concerns about such a delay, we worked hard to route a patrol to her as quickly as possible, in fact appointing a patrol to attend her vehicle 50 minutes after her initial call to us, meaning we would have been in attendance well within our original estimate of 90 minutes.

However, Miss Woods called us minutes later to advise she had made her own arrangements.

RAC realises Miss Woods' disappointment in the circumstances, but hopes that upon reflection she may be able to accept our sincere apologies and reassurance for the future.