Decision not to go ahead with Leeds Clean Air Zone is astonishing - YEP letters

I find the decision not to go ahead with the Clean Air Zone astonishing. In fact the scheme was never comprehensive, as it only dealt with part of the problem and did not fully tackle emissions from vehicles in this city.

It seems silly in the extreme to use the excuse that emissions have dropped during the last few months when we have experienced a problem that has not occurred in our life time before.

The fact is that the last four months have been unusual and there is no guarantee that things will not return to what they were previously once we have a vaccine.

It seems to me it has allowed those who were not really in favour of having a Clean Air Zone at all an excuse.

What next? Are these people going to reject the climate emergency and the work towards zero carbon by 2030 because of the events of the last four months?

The fact is that nothing has changed and Covid-19 is actually a symptom of the society we are living in, that takes no account of the impact that our species have on this planet – we take things for granted and pollute at will.

We need to change, but that change should be with continued and genuine controls on emissions and a delivery of zero carbon by 2030.