Laura Mayes has assured us that she is doing all she can about the air pollution problem in Devizes.

That is the trouble, she is very limited in what she can do now because the problem is the result of the excessive housing developments forced on Devizes and Roundway over many years. The chickens have come home to roost.

Declaring an air quality management area is a useful recognition of the problem, but it was a legal requirement and in itself it is not going to achieve much.

Meanwhile, far from her claim about immediately updating the traffic model, which would have helped to resist the estate developers, Wiltshire Council has been dragging its feet several years after the old model was shown to be wrong. What does she think about the recent outrageous proposal for a large development at Coate and how that might affect traffic and air pollution? Where is the new traffic model when we need it?

The answer to air pollution is not tinkering with road markings, wasting our money on changes to a road junction and belatedly improving cycle networks. We need a clear policy in place to put a stop to any more housing estates before air quality has improved and real road improvements are in place, contrary to Wiltshire Council’s proposals for yet more houses.

Ted East, Chairman, The Trust for Devizes.