‘Proposed expansion of Ulez a revenue-raising exercise cloaked in health-scare terminology’

• LET me state at the outset that as a central London resident with a car, I am already subject to the Mayor of London’s Ulez, ultra low emission zone, policy.

That said, I certainly feel able to challenge his virtue-signalling “pollution prevention” offered as the justification for the expansion of that policy far beyond the centre of this great city, not only on a personal level (see below) but on a vital business survival level for so many in the Greater London area.

I have spent more than 60 years living and working in some of the busiest streets of this great city, often in the midst of its traffic for hours at a time when it was required of me.

I am now approaching my 79th birthday and, whatever other health issues time and tide have sent my way, respiratory problems are absent, despite remaining in retirement within a stone’s throw of what is reported to be the most polluted road in the inner-city.

An interesting situation and ongoing outcome for this long-term resident, with a reported childhood asthmatic history, don’t you think?

I see this proposed expansion of Ulez far beyond the centre of London as a revenue-raising exercise cloaked in health-scare terminology, a policy that instead threatens to suffocate the essential businesses upon which so much of the country’s creative and entrepreneurial future relies.

It is little wonder that certain London councils are reported to be resisting taking part in such a widely damaging and dogma-driven action.

MC NEWBERRY, W1