THE Zero emissions Zone for Oxford city centre (ZEZ) is not ‘ridiculous’ as the traders group ROX claims (Oxford Mail, April 17), it is essential, but it needs to be bigger and bolder.

The ZEZ proposed is too small to make much difference at all to the air quality in central Oxford. It does nothing to improve the very poor air quality in, for example, the High Street and St Aldates.

The traders complain that they cannot replace their vehicles and the technology needs to evolve. Pedal and Post already provides a cargo cycle delivery which is pollution free and can deliver faster than motor vehicles in the congested city centre.

Electric vans are competitive on price because of the Government’s Plug-in Van Grant; the running costs are lower too according to specialist motoring associations.

Nissan cite a range of 106 miles for their electric vans, which can be lowered by cold weather and a large load but is still more than sufficient for local deliveries where the average van driver drives 70 miles per day.

If you would rather not buy you can also hire electric vans with running costs of only £1.25-£2.80 per 100 miles, depending on the cost of the electricity you are using to charge the van.

So I am puzzled at what more ‘evolution’ the traders want from electric vans – they are already available and cheap.

We not only need the ZEZ, we need it to be bigger and we need more traffic free areas if we are to have a city centre which is truly people friendly instead of the current situation of a city centre which welcomes traffic but not people.

DR HAZEL DAWE

Bulan Road, Oxford