Make buses free

Edinburgh’s first Open Streets day was a welcome event, no doubt, while moves to restrict vehicle access into the city centre are certainly worth supporting (Scotsman, 6 May) – yet any temptation to congratulate the council and Friends of the Earth should be resisted.

The council, after all, ignored a recommendation by its own environmental health officers to refuse an application to build a Virgin Hotel of up to 11 storeys at a site in the Cowgate, where air quality which already breaches international standards will only be made worse as a result of the ‘canyon effect’. Friends of the Earth might also care to ask its director, Dr Richard Dixon, why, as

a member of the board of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, he went along with the decision to offer no objection, likewise ignoring the environmental health officer’s recommendation.

In any case, a few temporary street closures will do next to nothing to reduce Edinburgh’s ambient air pollution.

A much better option would be to provide all citizens with free bus travel, as has been done in other cities, such as Portland, Oregon, and Perth, Australia. Even Alexandria, Virginia, hardly a nest of radicalism, provides free bus rides from its metrolink from Washington DC to its waterfront.

DAVID J BLACK Glanville Place, Edinburgh

With the news that cars as new as five years old face a ban from the whole of Edinburgh it looks like the local council won’t be happy until we are all driving around Fred Flintstone-style.

DOUGLAS S BRUCE Foster Road, Penicuik