LIFE as a jobbing actor could be about to get harder. I chose to enter this profession 37 years ago, so I can't expect any sympathy from those of you more sensible in your job choice. Not that any career is secure in 2006, except perhaps accountancy and law?

However, the introduction of road pricing could have devastating effects on many workers, including actors.

Sadly, outside of Stratford on Avon, there are now virtually no theatres that employ a troupe of actors to perform in a substantial season of plays. Contracts are therefore short and, where possible, actors often commute in order to avoid the increasingly prohibitive cost of rented accommodation and hotels.

I have derived a substantial part of my income in recent years from appearing in touring theatrical productions. Living in High Wycombe is very convenient, because venues such as Swindon, Cheltenham, Milton Keynes and Guildford are easily commutable and I have regularly driven daily to and from theatres in Poole, Peterborough, Birmingham and Brighton.

This has enabled me to earn my living as an actor whilst playing more than a minimal and occasional role in the lives of my family. I have been very lucky over two decades in being able to combine those two things fairly painlessly.

I need hardly tell you that the possibility of commuting those distances by any public transport system for anyone whose working day ends after 10 pm is less likely than Real Madrid offering David Beckham on loan to Wycombe Wanderers (not that we need him, I hasten to add).

If the present proposals for road pricing are implemented, then a six-day commute to Bath, leaving around three in the afternoon and returning home after midnight could, using the figures being suggested, cost as much as £260 a day! Whatever idea you may have of your columnist's earning potential as an actor, I can assure you that I would be better off selling the Bucks Free Press in Colchester!

The measures are allegedly designed to prevent the much-hyped impending "gridlock". No one wants to sit in traffic jams for hours. There is a simple solution. Offer an attractive transport alternative and people will use it.

With road pricing as the only strategy, those who can't afford it (most of us) will be driven off the roads, leaving the few who can, to enjoy the empty roads.