• IT is reported that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is exempting black cabs but not emergency vehicles from low emission controls.

How can we take this decision seriously?

Emergency vehicles are relatively few in number with little regular use compared with the prowling polluters in the legions of black cabs that occupy London’s streets on a 24/7 basis.

As a central London resident who is subject to parking and congestion charges for a well-maintained older vehicle, I am now also faced with the added emission charge for which, as a very occasional user – mainly for travelling out of town – I will be expected to pay. Fair enough.

The logic is there for me to understand.

In the original consultation inquiry I made a particular reference to the oily diesel debris left on interior window frames in this short one-way mainly residential street, favoured as a “rat-run” by cabs.

How exempting the taxis from this scheme makes any sense is beyond me and we must draw our own conclusions about the reasoning behind this disease-dealing decision.

M Newberry
Harcourt Street, W1