WERE you, like me, horrified by that TV news footage last week, taken with thermal imaging cameras on a busy urban street?

One shot in particular struck me. A scene you’d see outside most school gates at picking-up time.

A toddler was sitting in a buggy alongside a stationary car that was belching out exhaust fumes right in his face.

Like most of us, when it comes to living up to our green principles I frequently fall short. Driving being the prime example.

The Riddle lifestyle simply wouldn’t be possible without two cars. I hold up my hands and plead guilty. I’m sure plenty of readers are in the same situation.

So what’s the answer, given the inability of our authorities to organise an affordable and reliable public transport system and the failure of high parking charges to act as a sufficient deterrent to motorists?

There’s no easy solution but there are measures that could have a significant combined effect.

Public Health England wants ‘no idling’ zones introduced outside schools, while in London, drivers of the dirtiest vehicles must now pay higher charges to enter the city centre. Great.

But what about here?

One idea that might work for many who live, for example, in the proliferation of city centre flats with minimal parking provision, is Co-Cars.

It’s highly successful in Exeter and spreading across the South-West.

Teddy the whippet and I decided it was worthy of investigation.

So we mooched through Thursday’s icy rain to a little ceremony marking the scheme’s move from a space in the central car park to a more accessible and visible location, in Salt Lane. (There’s another car sited in York Road, too.)

Councillors Atiqul Hoque and Sven Hocking are to be congratulated on joining the shivering, dripping wet handful of enthusiasts to show their support for improving Salisbury’s air quality.

So how does it work?

In a nutshell you pay £25 a year for access, bookable online, to the club’s clean, fully-maintained, insured cars with their own parking spots, from as little as £3.75 an hour and a small mileage charge. You even get roadside assistance thrown in.

There’s fuller information at co-cars.co.uk

The Salisbury club currently has about 50 members and the cars are used, on average, for four hours a day each, which is encouraging although there’s obviously spare capacity.

As I say, it’s not for me at present but I can see how it could work for many people and I wish it every success.

And on the environmental front, here’s news from our hospital to make us all feel better.

The redevelopment project team have got back to me to say that despite the demands of national policy, as reported in the hospital’s own estates strategy, they do not intend to flog off any land for open market housing.

They are determined to focus on education, research and technology facilities and will need “all available areas” to incorporate green space because it’s good for our health.

Green space! Yippee! Someone’s got the message!

anneriddle36@gmail.com