Spot fines for engine idlers, please

Published: 3 February, 2011

• A WHILE back some councillors seemed keen to take up a suggestion that would earn quite a lot of money and considerably reduce street pollution. 

Sadly the initiative has yet to take place but it has already been implemented in Scotland. 

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 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 nought-five years age group bears the brunt of it. 

The drivers are too insulated from the outside world to notice what they are doing.

I would like to see spot fines for people who do this.

Our carbon footprint would be reduced and revenue would be increased.

S MacREYNOLDSON
Address supplied