What follows is my last...

What follows is my last word on the British International Motor Show, 2006. Or my last 587 words, to be precise. On the three days and one evening I attended the expo in London"s Docklands, I saw nothing but satisfied British and international journalists, cautiously optimistic motor industry personnel and, most important of all, happy punters.

A disabled driver friend of mine summed up the event perfectly when he said the two main show halls and countless stands looked small, but were big enough. And easy to get around, too. It was, he told me, the most exciting and easy-to-negotiate car expo he"d attended in decades. I can"t disagree.

But the ExCeL arena is far from complete. Its public transport links are flawed and much of the surrounding area is shoddy. Even the bits that are finished have their problems. Just how difficult is it to make the newly installed air-conditioning system work in the recently built show halls? Why does the "light railway" to and from the venue cost so much to use? And what are the local council and ExCeL"s entrepreneurial owners collectively doing to rid the area of the bomb sites, derelict buildings, rubbish dumps and general decay embarrassingly within eye-shot of the venue?

These are simple and easy problems to solve. The air-con needs a boost, the lightweight trains must drop their heavyweight fares and local landowners should clean up their act before the 2008 British Motor Show. A few flower beds plus a major tree-planting programme wouldn"t hurt, either. I suggest sponsorship so that a leafy Alfa Avenue, BMW Boulevard and Chrysler Crescent are quickly adopted. Since motor showgoers tend to drive, more ExCeL road signs and priority routes are needed so greater numbers of visitors can travel there by car and park for a fiver. Better river access should be provided next time, too.

I used one of London"s best-kept secrets, the (free) Woolwich car ferry to get me and my 4x4 across the Thames from north east to south east. So how about people in places like Oxford on one side of the capital and Southend, Essex, on the other travelling along their respective sections of the river by watercraft? Maybe ticket holders with boats or jetskis could enjoy free mooring space for a day, too. And given that ExCeL will inevitably need to expand, who is going to be brave enough to build a new, gloriously hi-tech hall on the water in 2008? My money"s on the VW Group, which could display all its brands (VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini and Bugatti) on a giant glass floating stand... with a test track on deck!

Other countries are already twitchy about the success of the inaugural ExCeL event, and that"s a good sign. For example, the organisers of the Tokyo Motor Show, which doesn"t take place until late 2007, seem worried that the new-look British expo might just get in the habit of stealing some cars originally destined to make world debuts in the Far East. And they"re right to be concerned.

One last thing. Can we halt the debate over where the BIMS should be staged? Just as Edinburgh is the undisputed home of the Fringe, Cardiff is the ultimate rugby union city, F1 lives and dies at Silverstone, Birmingham is the curry capital and Manchester is our best-known footballing town, the British Interч­national Motor Show belongs to London. Sorry, but you can"t argue with that. I forbid you.

Mike Rutherford writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent, presents ITV"s Pulling Power and is founder of the Motorists" Association