• ISLINGTON Council is made up of lots of working-class councillors and working-class officers… élites aren’t often tempted by local government or being a councillor.

Air pollution in Islington is over the legal limits in some places; unsurprising given we are bordered by the A1 and Seven Sisters Road and Green Lanes.

The severe impact of Covid-19 on members of the BAME communities at the height of the pandemic was found to be linked to air pollution as well as overcrowding.

Members of our ethnic minority communities are not well represented in the middle or upper classes in this country. Systemic racism, lack of opportunity, so hardly ever members of an élite.

Our Highbury West council estates – Quill Street, the Blackstock Estate, Aubert Court – house many ethnic minority tenants and white British residents. So these tenants, and other council tenants like me (no bike or car in sight in my case), and all of us, will benefit from improvements in air quality.

Children were happily playing out on a local street the other day, inside the Highbury West LTN. Even if the number of fatalities has been low in recent years in our LTN, perception also matters. They feel safer. And they are, of course, if they play there now. Working-class kids are less likely to have gardens.

All of us inhale the pollution on our roads, and many able-bodied, non-working, drivers are refusing to use public transport at present and are filling our roads, without a thought to the effect on others’ lungs or bus journey times.

I had to get off a 73 bus and walk from Pentonville Road (not in an LTN) to my home in N5, such was the traffic in the King’s Cross area the other day. That’s superior and unthinking behaviour there: drivers who decide to drive in London now, when they are not all disabled; and probably largely not working at 7pm on a Sunday; and the Covid rate is lower than it has ever been; and vaccinations work against the India variant.

P Jouven lives in N5. I do, Dr R (May 21) does, V Buffard, A Willett and J Taylor do, too, all recent writers of pro-low traffic neighbourhood letters to your newspaper. Don’t try to delegitimise us.

The working classes are awake. They helped return Labour councillors to all five wards on May 6. They are now sleeping at night, too, because thousands of cars are no longer driving past their homes 24 hours a day to get somewhere quickly. Hope it’s not too élitist wanting to sleep.

The interim Canonbury LTN results just out show a 10 per cent reduction in traffic on boundary roads. Good news for residents on those main roads. The ULEZ will hopefully see a further reduction in car numbers on all roads. We need more car reduction measures for all roads.

D BYRNE, N5