Aberdeen doesn’t need a low emission zone just yet
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I AM WRITING to you in response to the proposed introduction of a low emission zone (LEZ) for the Scottish city Aberdeen (CM 17 March).
While cleaner air for all who live and work in and around Aberdeen is an admirable prospect, there is a much more obvious and desperately needed alternative to the introduction of an LEZ.
A short while ago I was based at Muggiemoss Road on the northern side of Aberdeen. It took 40 minutes leaving my depot heading south travelling along Anderson Drive (A90) at 4am to the Shell Garage on the Stonehaven Road on the southern side of the city. The same journey at rush hour could easily take up to two hours.
The residents, businesses and all who have their lives blighted by this bottleneck would much rather have a ring road to the west of the city, in order to lift this appalling congestion from their lives.
It would create cleaner air from the reduced pollution and remove frustration from daily commuters – never mind the cost to the local transport industry and all others travelling through Aberdeen.
If the Scottish regional transport body Nestrans is serious about cleaner air, then it should ask why so much public money has already been spent on discussing, planning and public inquiries to ind an agreeable route for this urgently required bypass, and yet still nothing has happened.
Then maybe when this has been built, an LEZ for Aberdeen “the oil capital of the UK” , would be more appropriate.
First the carrot, then the stick – for a change. Nick Garlick Lorry driver