Green zone sounds the death knell for city centre

Sir, – What a wonderful idea by Aberdeen City Council to implement an LEZ. This is yet another nail in the coffin for city centre shops which are trying to recover from the pandemic and the closure of several department stores. Do councillors actually live in the real world ?

This type of action will just deter shoppers from coming into the city centre and you will end up with an extremely quiet Union Street.

Councillors need to buck up their ideas as the recent cycle lane fiasco along the beach front was a complete disaster and cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds of wasted money which could have been diverted into something more practical like repairing the thousands of potholes in the roads around Aberdeen.

This LEZ will only move the traffic and pollution into smaller streets so that getting across the city will involve longer journeys and therefore increased mileage and even more pollution.

Some of the start & stop parts of the LEZ are designed to catch people out, hence increased fines. The proposed layout is extremely confusing.

The main culprits of pollution currently in Aberdeen are buses and the boats in the harbour.

I have noticed buses being driven around Aberdeen city with black smoke being emitted and I’ve seen boats in the harbour sitting with their engines running.

Both of these points should be addressed before the Aberdeen public are penalised for the pollution in the city centre.

The city centre is an extremely important area for any city and projects the local culture. It should not be made into a no-go area by inefficient councillors. Gordon Bowie. Whitecairns, Aberdeenshire.