Classic owners aren’t the problem – online shopping is!

Clean Air Zones? What is wrong with everyone? Has nobody got any common sense anymore?

I started life in the motor trade in 1969 and in those days ‘health’ and ‘safety’ were just words. When a fitter started a car up in the workshop it filled up with exhaust fumes very soon. There was always a bit of cursing, but we just got on with it.

I really do know what exhaust fumes smell like. A few years ago, I would come out in the early mornings and occasionally smell the fumes hanging in the air, but now it’s every morning and during the day. What happened? Internet shopping!

Classic owners are going to get the blame because it’s easy to point a finger. Typical scenario – you go online, order

one or two items and they arrive by van. Then another van comes to pick them up when it’s wrong – and then the process starts all over again. This is happening thousands of times every day all over Britain!

As more of our high street shops disappear, it’s only going to get worse. The exhaust gases in the air aren’t going to suddenly stop because they have reached the outer perimeter of the CAZ. We have got to stop this utter madness of online shopping; it might be cheaper but at what cost to our health and environment?

Government/councils are going to take the easy option, and first in line will be you, the classic car owner!

Perhaps goods should be carried by rail. And why not have more park-andride schemes to alleviate our congested towns and cities?

Howard Bowles, West Sussex