Sir – The county council’s move to establish a Low Emission Zone is very welcome as far as the city centre is concerned, but it fails to address poor air quality at other locations, and is unfair to bus passengers.

The LEZ will only apply to buses; the county’s reasoning being that buses are the principal source of harmful emissions in the city centre. There are areas outside the city centre, however, which have poor air quality. In the city council’s Local Air Quality Management: Progress Report, these locations are identified as including Cowley Centre, Headington, Summertown and the Abingdon Road. Buses contribute very little to poor air quality at these locations.

Whereas 20-30 buses per hour in each direction is an excellent service, it represents a very small proportion of vehicle movements which, according to county data, exceed 16,000 per day in Summertown.

The LEZ will, therefore, barely make any difference to the air quality at these locations. The county’s other reason for not including other vehicles in restrictions is that it is too difficult. This is not good enough. Air quality matters in the suburbs as much as it does in the centre.

If restricting vehicle types is too difficult, how about just reducing vehicle flows?

This could be achieved using workplace parking charging or bus priority to encourage bus use.

Buying the best part of a new fleet of buses will cost bus companies dear, and these costs will be passed on to passengers.

Motorists meanwhile will not be penalised. This is unfair. If the county is forcing me to pay through the nose to be sitting on a brand-new bus, the least I expect in return, is that bus be given a swift path through traffic.

Noam Bleicher, Oxford