Raise funds by penalising parked polluters

Published: 3 February, 2011

• LAST year several Camden councillors seemed keen to take up a suggestion that would earn the borough quite a lot of money and considerably reduce street pollution. 

Sadly the initiative has yet to take place but, please, could you consider it? It has already been implemented by Edinburgh City Council. It tackles a widespread problem of drivers who sit parked with their engines running indefinitely for no reason. They release fumes which do not disperse like those of moving vehicles, but remain concentrated at pavement level. When the vehicle is a 20ft van, building truck, coach or 4x4 doing this for quarter of an hour or more, the pollution is inordinate. Walking up any shopping street, one sees around half a dozen vehicles poisoning the air in this way. Everyone has to breathe it in and the 0-5 age group bears the brunt of it. The drivers are too insulated from the outside world to notice what they are doing.

Please introduce spot fines for people who do this. Our carbon footprint would be reduced and revenue would be increased.

S MacREYNOLDSON
Hornsey Lane, N6