Reading Borough Council have hit back after 'In Town Without My Car' day saw no drop in the use of the council staff car park and the public forced on to overcrowded and overpriced buses because no extra services had been scheduled to cope with the increased demand.

Council spokesman Oscar Mortali said: "What the public have to realise is that we are incentivised by the number of pointless campaigns we can promote not on their success, and on how many column inches we get for the "lead councillor for..." in the local press.

"In fact it would be completely irresponsible for a council like Reading to actually want people to stop using their cars or start recycling properly because our whole five year financial plan is now based on levying record numbers of fines for bus lane, parking and recycling offences. If everyone started obeying the law, we'd be bankrupt and have to slash essential services. Thank goodness you didn't ask about the council's internal recycling policies, you'd have got us on that one!"