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Council leaders have been warned not to try to reverse their defeat over Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone plan by bringing back the same proposals and trying to “ram” them through at the next meeting of the transport committee.

Readers backed warnings against the LEZ proposals being returned in their current form

John Lamb: If nothing else, this episode has proved that politicians shouldn't be allowed to make decisions about issues they don't understand. They clearly haven’t read and understood the reports that the council produce every year, and they certainly haven’t kept up to date with the changes in traffic and monitoring data. The modelling assessment that was used to design the LEZ needs to be revised as a matter of priority, with up-to-date information on the type of vehicles before they consider another plan. And if they look at the most recent monitoring data, they will find that air pollution is already at an all-time low, so the case for an LEZ may no longer be valid.

Ian Simpson: These jumped-up community councillors should not be making major decisions on anything – look at the shambles they made of the trams.

James Crawley: Unfortunately it will be like the congestion charge all over again after it was kicked into touch. The council will try again after they actively engage in creating a problem where there was none before and bring it back to the table, citing that this is the only way to combat the problem. After the congestion charge was voted down they were hellbent on creating as much congestion as possible and making life for commuters that keep the city functioning on a daily basis an absolute misery. They will revisit this as they will the congestion charge. Don’t let them make your life more difficult than it already is – oust the sitting councillors and take back your city.

Gavin Jarvie: Change your model… Create a distribution drop-off/pick-up zone for goods and services at Edinburgh Airport (and/or the park and ride), Edinburgh Gateway, Edinburgh Park and Ocean Terminal then utilise the tram with a modified designed carriage to cope with moving goods through the city centre, during the day or late evenings, so that there are fewer HGVs moving through the city. That will ease congestion on the roads and keep emissions lower. There are loads of big supermarkets and shopping centres, not to mention smaller businesses, all along the tram line that could be using smaller electric vehicles or electrically operated pallets etc that could take delivery of goods. I am quite sure some sort of tracker app could be used so that they know what tram it could potentially be put into so they could be at a tram stop to pick it up. The timetable could be modified at a couple of times in the day to extend the time one of these trams runs so that it allows a few extra minutes to load and unload (or do it at night as a separate run). And if everyone gets off their backsides and collaborates then perhaps the Port of Leith will be declared a free port, instead of arguing over a branding that is politically detrimental to the growth of Scotland.

Vaccine passports

Indoor venues such as cafes and gyms should be added to the Covid vaccine passport scheme, a leading public health expert has urged, as she called on the Scottish Government to consider expanding the certification strategy after COP26.

Carol Heart: That would be blatant discrimination against the elderly. So wrong in many ways

Warren Noble: It’s apparently fine for us common folk but no good for the thousands of VIPs attending COP26 every day.

Alex Ian Thomas: Just add eating, sleeping and breathing to the list as well then tell us how we have a choice.

David Black: It seems strange that people say this can't work/won't work here, yet it is widespread across the EU and is working very well. That's the EU that the majority of Scots want to be part of.

Sarah Clark: I just don’t understand why the benefits don’t override the slight inconvenience. If you had it in more places and it became as normal as taking your credit card or phone with you and it would become less of an inconvenience. I do agree it’s been badly managed to this point.

James Tierney: Vaccine passports are divisive, stupid, irrational and only a mandatory vaccination in disguise. An authoritarian government enjoying its power to the point of absurdity. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been jabbed or not in respect of catching the virus or transmitting it.

Bryan Wood: As someone who works in hospitality, no! It’s hard enough as it is.

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