NICK Jeffery and Ashley Jenkins (letters September 10) believe that if Southampton City Council takes no action at all, the levels of NOx in the city will fall to levels compliant with EU legislation within 36 months.

But if, by taking action, levels are reduced beyond this, health outcomes will improve and the number of premature deaths will fall further. The 40 mg/m3 NOx level quoted in the letter is the maximum permitted and not the level we should be aiming for.

No-one wants to see any loss of jobs but this is not in itself an argument for taking no action. After all, taking action on smoking has led to job losses in the tobacco industry. Would Nick Jeffery and Ashley Atkins have opposed attempts to stop people smoking on the grounds of job losses at BAT in Regents Park?

They say that Nottingham will reach compliance without charging but this overlooks two significant ways in which this city's transport differs from Southampton's. Firstly, Nottingham has low-emission trams in its city centre and, secondly, it has a Workplace Parking Levy which is used to support sustainable transport. The recent extension to the tram network was funded largely by revenue raised from the WPL. When Nottingham City Council proposed the WPL businesses, including one of the biggest employers, Boots, threatened to leave the city saying they could not afford the extra costs. Yet, several years on, Boots is still in Nottingham and, as far as I am aware, not a single business has left the city as a result of the WPL.

Cleaner and healthier cities do not deter businesses; on the contrary, they become more attractive places to live and work. Take the city of Leicester, for example, which has taken radical action to reduce the number of polluting vehicles in its centre. Car parks have been replaced with public squares and gardens, and one lane of the ring road has been given over to sustainable transport (primarily cycling). Yet businesses, far from leaving the city, are happy to be there and Leicester has one of the fastest growing economies of all UK cities.

I would agree with Nick Jeffery and Ashley Jenkins in their criticism of Southampton City Council for failing to take action to reduce petrol and diesel cars entering the city. At the public meeting on air quality held last week, council leader Chris Hammond admitted that the Highways England proposals for the eastern corridor from Bursledon roundabout to Six Dials would result in increased air pollution. The council has approved a scheme that is bad for pedestrians, bad for cyclists, bad for buses and bad for the health of all those Southampton residents living on or close to the A3024.

The council's proposals are certainly not the answer to the city's toxic air but neither is doing nothing because the city is "already close to the required limits". To continue to jeopardise the health of our young and vulnerable, including the unborn who are the city's future, is inexcusable.

Lindsi Bluemel

Bitterne Park