Anyone wondering why a few brave councillors in York’s political parties bang on and on about air pollution need look no further than the new World Health Organisation data (The Press, May 3).

York is the 17th most polluted city in the UK. We have worse air pollution than Sheffield, London, Coventry, Hull, Wigan, Birmingham, Newcastle,

Oxford, Preston, Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, Middlesbrough and hundreds of other towns and cities.

Our pollution is no longer caused by industry; it is caused by motor traffic. Whereas our twin city of Dijon has an attractive modern tram network

carrying 60,000 travellers a day we continue to damage our own health. We persuade ourselves that radical public transport solutions won’t work on our historic streets, even though they work fine in dozens of other historic cities, like Dijon.

Which of our streets were designed for traffic jams exactly? Micklegate, Bootham, Gillygate, Fishergate, Nunnery Lane?

Were the city walls designed to be encircled by daily traffic jams?

And where is the freight hub to limit and rationalise lorry deliveries across the city?

I know people struggle to imagine a better world but the WHO pollution figures show how desperately York needs to park the cars and join the 21st century.

Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake, York