YP Letters: Shocked at attempt to blame fires for pollution

Michael Gove has called for action on emissions from a variety of sources, including in the home, as he set out plans to reduce people's exposure to particulate matter - considered the most damaging pollutant.

I WAS shocked to hear a spokesperson for Defra give an extremely biased justification for its proposed attack on wood burning stoves. The lady claimed repeatedly that wood burning stoves were more dangerous than pollution from motor vehicles – outrageously untrue, but at least a refreshing change from all the pointless referendum speculation we have been subjected to recently.

Cars alone in this country are expected to top 40 million by 2020, i.e. over 50 per cent of the population will own or drive a car and many more will drive for work, including the delivery of internet purchases. In contrast, the number of homes heated by wood burning stoves will remain a tiny and seasonal minority.

I can only assume that what has stirred Defra from its normal inertia is the sad case of the little girl in London whose asthma death was allegedly contributed to by traffic pollution from the adjacent road and could well lead to the prosecution of the Highway Authority, hence this political attempt to blur the issue.

As anybody who has stood waiting to cross the A65 in Guiseley will agree, peak periods now last most of the working day and pollution from traffic can be both smelled and tasted, with the vehicles responsible only too obvious.