Letters: The senseless Ulez expansion risks turning London into a ghost town

SIR – Perhaps Sadiq Khan is correct that today’s expansion of the ultra-low emission zone will improve air quality in London.

This colossal act of folly risks creating a place where people and businesses can no longer afford to operate, resulting in a ghost town.

Charles Penfold
Ulverston, Cumbria

SIR – “Ulez penalties ‘will hit small businesses’” (report, August 28).

Should that not read: “Ulez penalties ‘will hit customers of small businesses’”?

Bruce Chalmers
Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex

SIR – In March 2020, the Mayor of London said of Covid: “There is no risk in using the Tube or buses or other forms of public transport.” 

In 2021, he said: “The only way to get the virus under control is a full national lockdown.” 

Now he claims that he will be on the “right side of history” with Ulez. Given Sadiq Khan’s track record, should we really trust his judgment?

Mark Macauley
Heytesbury, Wiltshire

SIR – The Ulez expansion symbolises the idiocy of the anti-growth agenda being promoted by a small eco-activist minority in this country. 

Stopping all normal forms of transport, such as cars and planes, is central to this agenda. What is not mentioned enough is the serious damage that will be inflicted on the poor if we remove our automotive and aerospace industries from the economy. A significant amount of revenue comes from these industries. Activists also need to understand that the car industry is moving rapidly towards carbon-free technology, and aero engines of the future will be powered by carbon-free hydrogen gas turbines. 

Professor R G Faulkner
Loughborough, Leicestershire

SIR – I read that a spokesman for Sadiq Khan has said that nine out of 10 cars in outer London are Ulez compliant (report, August 28).

If that is the case, then the overall reduction in pollution in the outer London area caused by non-compliant vehicles will be negligible – which calls into question the cost-benefit argument for the expansion of the scheme. 

John Polsue
London SW12

SIR – My wife’s diesel hatchback is so “clean” that the road tax is only £35 per year. However, it does not comply with Ulez requirements, and we must pay £12.50 each time we drive into London. 

By contrast, the annual tax on my 20-year-old petrol car, which is Ulez compliant, is £395. 

How does this help Sadiq Khan’s efforts to clean up London’s air?

John Cavendish
Alton, Hampshire

Tougher on crime

SIR – I completely agree with Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, that all burglaries should be investigated by the police. 

Ten years ago I was the victim of a burglary, at a time when the police did attend the scene of the crime. The burglar left DNA from his blood in my flat. I was therefore surprised when the police decided to drop my case because of “insufficient evidence”. I was invited to a meeting with the chief superintendent of Islington, who informed me that they could not take any action because the officers had failed to follow the correct procedures.

I suggest the Home Secretary makes sure that all police procedures are up to scratch, otherwise her initiative will be a waste of time and money.

Ian MacGregor
London N2

SIR – If Suella Braverman wants all levels of crime to be investigated – so long as a reasonable line of inquiry exists – two things need to happen.

First, remove the ridiculous burden of paperwork from front-line police officers to free up their time. 

Secondly, increase the number of serving officers.

Cutting unnecessary civil servants from the government payroll would help with the latter.

Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire

SIR – Mrs Braverman says: “Victims [of crime] are failed when police simply don’t take an interest in following reasonable leads – instead just handing out a crime reference number.”

When I complained about Carl Beech and others making false allegations against me during Operation Midland in 2016, the Metropolitan Police refused even to give me a crime reference number. Police should refocus on crime-fighting devoid of wokeism.

Improvements should also be made in the quality of detective work, which is at its lowest level for decades. Paul Settle, a retired detective chief inspector, warned that good detectives had been ditched – himself included.

The problem is not just the number of police on the front line – most of whom do a good job – but the lack of quality in detective work, coupled with bad leadership.

K Harvey Proctor
Grantham, Lincolnshire

Dorries v Sunak

SIR – Nadine Dorries’s attack on Rishi Sunak (report, August 27) expresses what many voters – including Conservative Party members like me – feel. Mr Sunak was not elected as Prime Minister, and neither understands what the public wants nor represents the views of the majority. His policies are destroying growth and failing to capitalise on Brexit. His Chancellor is making things worse.

In his arrogance, Mr Sunak also fails to realise that his policies – or lack of them – will cost the Conservatives the next general election.

David Wallin
Nottingham

Foraging lessons

SIR – I went blackberrying with my daughter this week (Letters, August 28) and collected a bountiful amount. 

She praised my speed, and I explained that this was honed during my childhood with my mum picking blackberries and rosehips, which led to an explanation of the latter. Do others remember collecting rosehips for Delrosa and taking bagfuls to school to be weighed, with a few pennies paid per pound? 

Eve Wilson
Hill Head, Hampshire

Driving in France

SIR – Michael Phillips (Letters, August 28) praises the standard of French driving. He is right, but it is always easy to drive on empty French autoroutes, which many motorists avoid because of tolls.

Mr Phillips also seems to have visited a part of France without roundabouts. These are a complete mystery to French drivers, who never signal and give no hint as to their intentions by being in any particular lane.

Phil Saunders
Bungay, Suffolk

SIR – I have recently returned from driving in Germany and Poland. 

I was surprised by the poor condition of the German roads. The motorways, like ours, had many roadworks signs without any work seeming to take place. 

Dresden, meanwhile, had the most dreadfully potholed and poorly repaired roads, which made even the appalling roads of Hampshire look reasonable in comparison.

Polish roads, however, were a delight, with little congestion and wonderful surfaces.

Charles Cooper
Lymington, Hampshire

Long-lived windows

SIR – Nicholas Boys Smith (Letters, August 22) asserts that wooden windows last “much longer” than uPVC ones. They don’t.

We, like most people who have replaced wooden windows with plastic, did so because they deteriorated comparatively quickly, in spite of routine maintenance and repeated repainting. Rotting wooden windows are a double-glazing salesman’s delight.

Interesting, too, is the eco warriors’ take on plastics in general: they don’t last five minutes when it suits the argument, but last for ever in the oceans and landfill.

John Hill
Market Harborough, Leicestershire

The worst accent?

SIR – Andrew H N Gray (Letters, August 25) refers to Michael Caine’s “painful” Scottish accent in Kidnapped.

Most painful of all, surely, is Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins. Appalling. How Julie Andrews could bear it, I don’t know.

Rosemary Carter
West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Siegfried Sassoon’s paean to a favourite sport

SIR – Your report (August 26) on the possible sale by the Siegfried Sassoon Trust of the cricket ground much loved by the poet says that he rarely wrote about cricket. 

An exception comes in Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, where there is a long chapter called “The Flower Show Match”. This book was a set text for O-level English literature in the 1950s. I doubt such a title would go down well now. I can thoroughly recommend it as a nostalgic read about a world that no longer exists.

Ruth Taylor
Bamburgh, Northumberland

The problem with Labour’s plan for GPs

SIR – Amid tremendous pressure on the NHS and shortages of GPs, the proposal by Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, to give everyone an immediate right to see a GP of their choice face-to-face (report, August 28) is not a sensible way forward. Rather, it is luxury that would in all likelihood lead to further delays and problems.

What is urgently required is for patients to be able to speak to a doctor – usually by phone at first – and then for a decision to be made as to the next steps, through a face-to-face meeting or by other means. Only once this is consistently being achieved will it make sense to consider further refinements.

Bob Hart
Newark, Nottinghamshire 

SIR – One does not hear much good news about the NHS, but my experience of using the 111 service to report a breathing difficulty over the weekend deserves mention. 

I called mid-afternoon and, after the usual questions, was told that a doctor would ring me. This happened within minutes; we discussed my symptoms and I was advised that an ambulance would be with me in a short time. 

It arrived in less than 15 minutes. A paramedic checked me out and gave me treatment before taking me to my local hospital. Here I was taken to the emergency assessment unit, where I was seen by a doctor, had some blood tests, was X-rayed and then seen by a consultant, all within two hours. I was back home with medication by early evening, well impressed.

Michael Robinson
Banbury, Oxfordshire

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