We must improve our air quality

At the same time that the UK is being prosecuted by the EU over our poor air quality breaches, the Canterbury draft transport strategy provides hope.

It is full of sustainable transport measures which will encourage more people to use their cars less and to walk, cycle and use public transport more.

We are very pleased to see many measures included in the strategy which were outlined as recommendations in the Sustainable Transport Blueprint for Canterbury by Dr Lynn Sloman.

We would like to congratulate Canterbury City Council on an aspirational strategy and for proposing some bold measures to try to tackle the accelerating problem of our traffic congestion and poor air quality, the latter causing at least 29,000 premature deaths in the UK every year (more than passive smoking, road traffic accidents or obesity).

We understand the city council is under huge pressure from central government to build more houses and therefore more road infrastructure and is being financially rewarded to do so at the same time as having other funding from central government slashed.

City council chief executive Colin Carmichael is absolutely correct in saying that local authorities are being bribed by central government through the new homes bonus. Whatever happened to localism? With traffic levels and air pollution set to remain somewhere near current levels until 2031 even with the current plans, we would urge the city council to be even bolder though and to challenge the wisdom of the new homes bonus and central government’s obsession with economic growth at any cost.

We will feedback our own views on specific details in the strategy and suggest extra measures via the forthcoming consultation.

But in the meantime, we would encourage everyone to get alongside the city council in ensuring the sustainable transport measures become reality.

That way we can start to make some progress on reducing car traffic and improving our air quality for the benefit of all citizens and for generations to come. Jo Kidd Canterbury Alliance for Sustainable Transport, St Dunstan’s Street, Canterbury

They have to run to a timetable, regardless of passenger demand.

My diesel car does about 50mpg, yet a bus would average about 10mpg.

Yes, many short journeys are by car. But can I really carry a week’s shopping, gardening supplies/plants, DIY equipment etc on a bicycle or a bus? Terry Hudson Russell Drive, Swalecliffe