There has been speculation in the press in the last couple of days that the MOT legislation will move towards a first test after four years and then a further test every two years. What should we be doing to counter such a ridiculous idea?

I know cars are vastly more reliable and less rust prone than even a few years ago, but they do more mileage under more arduous conditions.

As an MOT tester I`ve seen first MOT cars with over 100,000 on the clock. And most weeks I see cars almost on the point of collapse because they haven`t seen the inside of a workshop since the last MOT, a mere twelve months ago.

It`s human nature to "leave" things that they are not pushed into doing, so only a few would still drop their car in for service or check if they didn`t have to have an MOT. I`m not talking about the three year old vehicles here, but the seven, eight,ten year old vehicles that owners no longer worry about the service history on, and which still make up a large number of the vehicles on the road.

Sorry for the long post, but I feel this is a really serious issue on many levels, not least safety. Very few people realise how very basic the MOT standards are, how bad something has to be to actually fail. So who should we harass and protest to - your views will be appreciated.