Letter: Employ a totally local workforce

£15 billion is being spent trying to improve roads but it has been shown in the past that the more you improve roads, the more traffic increases, adding to pollution and climate change, leading to floods.

Instead, the authorities should be trying to reduce road usage.

People should be encouraged to switch jobs to ones more local to where they live, within a walk or cycle to work radius.

Many people employed in retail or service sector industries like bars and restaurants, usually on minimum wage, should be incentivised to switch employers and obtain jobs close to home.

The Government should consider paying them a £10 a week bonus for moving to a job closer to home.

The council could survey supermarkets and bars etc and publish lists of businesses that employ the highest percentage of workers who live within one mile or five miles of where they work. They could issue ratings like the hygiene certificate with five stars going to businesses that employ a totally local workforce.

For the employees it would mean a better lifestyle with less time spent travelling to work and less money spent on travel. For employers they would have workers who are seldom ever late for work due to travel delays.

Shoppers might also start switching where they shop or eat and drink by taking the ethical decision to spend their money in places that employ a local workforce and reduce their carbon footprint, helping to prevent flooding due to climate change.

I currently work in a minimum wage job two minutes walk from home. Other people I work with spend one hour or more travelling five miles through constant roadworks on the A646.

Alex Rudkin, Mytholmroyd