Hastings reader suggests free buses are needed to ease congestion

On Monday, I heard that researchers at King’s College, London, found out that there is a big increase in the number of people who need ambulances because of heart attacks, strokes and acute asthma attacks on days when air pollution is high.

They think air pollution contributes to up to 36,000 deaths a year. They think there is a health emergency as well as a climate emergency.

On Tuesday, I heard that some West Sussex County Councillors want about 20 homes and lots of countryside to be destroyed so that a bypass with a dual carriageway can be built near Arundel.

The economy in the South East is “significantly negatively affected” by traffic congestion and councillors think a new road with a dual carriageway would help. It wouldn’t help much because when a new road is built, congestion always returns, sooner or later.

Congestion will get worse and worse because the population is expected to get bigger and bigger for many years and electric cars are very cheap to run.

Someone told me he sold his car because he had a bus pass and someone said his son bought a car because bus fares for his family were so high.

We need free buses to bring down the number of cars, prevent illness, reduce carbon emissions and make the economy grow faster.