hursday’s Oxford Mail entitled Emission Zone Isn’t Working, I was surprised that taxis were included in the list of polluting vehicles.

I was also surprised by the comments by Louisa Weeks of the Oxford Bus Company, who said that she was frustrated that the Low Emissions Zone will not include taxis.

Taxis are responsible for less than six per cent of Oxford’s traffic pollution, buses for 80 per cent, and all other traffic 14 per cent.

We all have to accept that the pollution levels in Oxford city centre have to be reduced.

Bus and taxi drivers spend their whole working day in our polluted streets. If their cabs were office buildings they would be closed down by the Health & Safety Executive.

But as normal, the bus companies take yet another opportunity to sway opinion in their attempts to get rid of every other form of transport from within the city centre. I think Ms Weeks is barking up the wrong tree when she talks of “frustration” that the LEZ will not include taxis.

After all, as every person who ever takes their lives into their own hands every time they visit the city centre will know, Oxford has become one massive bus station over the years.

No one from the local authorities has been prepared to use transport legislation – which allows them to apply to the traffic commissioners to reduce the number of bus journeys wherever they cause excessive pollution and, or, congestion.

As for taxis, even though my members’ vehicles are only responsible for six per cent of the pollution, we have accepted the need to reduce our carbon footprint even further, and have signed up to an Oxford City Council initiative where particulate trap exhaust systems or LPG engines are fitted to the city’s black cabs. This starts in 2010.

Approximately 40 per cent of our cabs already comply with Euro 3 specifications.

In 2013 every cab will be required to be Euro4 compliant.

So it won’t be too long before taxi pollution is responsible for causing less than four per cent of the city’s road traffic pollution.

However, every time one class of vehicle is barred from an area of the city, it just gets filled up with more buses and more bus pollution. How frustrating is that?

ALAN WOODWARD, General Secretary, City of Oxford Licensed Taxicab Association (Colta)