A ban on heavily-polluting vehicles driving through the city streets sounded like a great idea when it was first mooted.

So when Oxford City Council declared the city centre a Low Emission Zone, people were rightly impressed something was being done about the city’s dirty air.

Now it has emerged that some of the most polluting vehicles are free to belch and spit out dangerous gases and smoke until 2014 before anything is done.

Basically, this grandly-titled Low Emission Zone is not worth the paper it is written on and people will have to wheeze on by for another five years before any action is finally taken.

A cursory walk along St Aldate’s — England’s ninth most polluted street — on any given day will include great big gasps of unsavoury air, so people are right to demand our councils act to clean up what we breathe.

We wonder how many individuals will develop breathing difficulties between now and when this Low Emission Zone is finally enforced.