THE move to more environmentally-friendly electric vehicles is both inevitable and necessary in making a contribution to cleaner air in York.

Labour welcomes the national target of half of all cars being ultra low emission by 2030, as significant steps must be taken if we are to deliver on both local and national carbon reduction ambitions.

It’s less encouraging, however, to see this Lib Dem-Tory coalition council adopt a wait and see approach on bidding for national funding to establish on-street charging schemes for those without their own driveways.

Given the national pot is a meagre £2.5 million, we can assume York has missed the boat. York used to be at the forefront of such pilots, so it’s unfortunate that the council often now follows rather than leads on national initiatives like this.

At the council we’ve seen residents attend public meetings to say they want electric cars, and in my own ward I regularly hear from people who say the same.

Sadly, without the necessary infrastructure in place they struggle to realise their ambitions.

Solutions may not always be straightforward, but if we are serious about addressing climate change we should be taking every opportunity to meet the challenges head on.

Cllr Jonny Crawshaw (Labour),

Wentworth Road, York

I’m outraged at lack of wheelchair taxis

I AM really outraged that in this day and age it is hard for someone who is disabled to get a wheelchair taxi. It seems that we are not supposed to go out.

I am in a wheelchair and wanted a taxi at 9.15 on Saturday morning go to the racecourse. I rang 18 companies in York: either they didn’t start until after that time, or you couldn’t book before the day (and what a chance of getting one then).

They were booked up because they only had one or two cars or they only took chairs that folded up and you sat in the front seat.

Some were helpful and gave me other names and phone numbers but the majority had the attitude that they just didn’t want to know, or couldn’t careless.

I am wondering how many others have had this same problem.

One company did suggest that I contacted the council, so that is my next job.

Name and address supplied