Defensive mayor made efforts to discredit doctors over our petition
IATTENDED the full council meeting on March 19 in support of Med Act Bristol’s petition on clean air for Bristol and was somewhat disgusted during the supplementary questions to the petition to hear a tetchily defensive Marvin Rees browbeat the petitioner and attempt to discredit doctors behind its drafting by attacking the NHS’s record on the use of diesel vehicles.
Quite apart from the fact that government has charged local authorities and not the health service with the duty to produce clean air policies where nitrogen dioxide pollution exceeds EU legal levels, it is hardly the role of front line doctors to make decisions about whether ambulances are diesel fuelled or not.
Mayor Rees’s response to the petition willfully failed to acknowledge that the doctors involved in the petition have knowledge and experience of the damaging impact of air pollution on health in Bristol uniquely gained through daily work with patients. His dog in a manger attitude was clearly not appropriate.
One needs to ask why Mayor Rees becomes so defensive when tackled about air pollution. No one is denying that his regime is doing something about it and that he is no doubt sincere. The issue is that nowhere near enough is being done and at a pace which is painfully slow. Unfortunately, Bristol does not compare well with progress being made elsewhere in the country.
Mayor Rees, and ‘leaders’ in the West of England Combined Authority, should look to learn from what is happening in Cambridge- now probably at the cutting edge of dealing with air pollution. Cambridge’s plans to have in place by 2029 a new metro network featuring as a centerpiece electric trackless trams, three times the length of double decker buses, offers the kind of mass transit system which, as a concept, could also benefit Bristol.
Mayor Rees has talked the talk about a new underground metro, Cambridge is walking the walk. Work on its new metro is due to start in 2021. There will be some underground stations in Cam- bridge city centre and the network is planned to run up to 18 miles outside the city.
Bristol and WECA might also learn from the ‘guided busway’ in Cambridgeshire about how to separate bus lanes from congested general traffic in order to improve both flow and punctuality of public transport.
Chris Lamb (Dr.)
Bristol