SIR - I was disappointed to read the Council’s leaflet about the Clean Air Zone.

According to WHO estimates, outdoor air pollution kills 4.2 million people each year. So since the start of the pandemic, about nine million people will have died due to poor air quality - nearly three million more than from Covid.

Instead of boasting about having ‘secured’ more exemptions than other cities the Council should be apologising to all those who will die sooner than they would have died without these extra exemptions and to those whose health will be worse than if those exemptions had not been ‘secured’.

When the proposals for the CAZ were put out to consultation in February 2020, Professor John Wright from the BRI told the T&A: “I tell some of my colleagues that when they drive diesel cars to work they do more harm than help to the patients they are treating."

With these extensive exemptions few non-compliant diesel cars will be charged for entering the CAZ, so owners will have no incentive to plan their businesses’ vehicle use to minimise journeys into the city centre.

Simon Smith, Hill Top Road, Thornton