Capital air shame

You draw attention to the scandal of Scotland’s deteriorating urban air quality (“Air pollution levels ‘now a medical emergency’ in Scottish cities”, 17 April). The public health implications of urban air pollution are beyond disit pute. Nitrogen oxides, in particular, can inflame the lungs and cause respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, while they have been linked to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. The Royal College of Physicians currently estimates that poor air quality is responsible for an estimated 40,000 – 50,000 premature deaths per annum in the UK.

Despite this, Edinburgh councillors have given the go-ahead for a hotel of up to 11 storeys at a point in the city’s Cowgatehead where air quality standards already breach accepted standards. If the scheme proceeds, a further deterioration in air quality will result. The city’s own environmental health officers recommended refusing consent, partly on the grounds that the local data collection methodology had been defective.

Astonishingly, state regulator the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency failed to make any comment whatever on the application, in effect supporting the developer. It seems that in Edinburgh the public’s health can be sacrificed for private profit.

There is, fortunately, a legal mechanism which can reverse this folly. Under section 65 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act the city councillors, who would appear to have been inadequately briefed, can revoke the planning consent. They should do so without delay.

DAVID J BLACK St Giles Street, Edinburgh