Regarding Councillor Pete West’s letter (The Argus, April 8), it is hard to argue against improving air quality and, indeed, I recognise this is a worthy aim.

However, like many others, I am somewhat sceptical of the claims made by our Green council and so-called experts pertaining to both life expectancy and increases claimed for bus and cycle journeys.

Those claiming improvement seem incapable of providing supporting facts, and simply quoting a 14% increase in cycling journeys is no help whatsoever if we have no idea of the base figures in the first place. After all, 14% of very little is still next to nothing.

In my experience, the number of cyclists using our gold-star cycle lanes remains extremely low and does nothing to justify the problems caused to the vast majority of road users along Old Shoreham Road, for example.

Indeed, an incident I witnessed the other day along this road underlined why so many of us complain about the provision of this scheme to the detriment of the majority It was 10.30am on a bright sunny day, well past the rush hour and the road was quiet. The cycle lane was unused but only because the sole cyclist in view was cycling along the pavement. One has to wonder why...

Perhaps Coun West could factor this sort of thing into his life expectancy calculations for those of us who still use the pavements to walk on.

BJ Cooper, Braeside Avenue, Brighton