WHILST the appearance of up to four cruise ships from the Carnival Group of companies is currently an attraction in Poole Bay, we need to discourage them anchoring off near the conurbation. Just 30 miles to the east, Southampton is one of the top six towns and cities in the UK with the poorest air quality, and a significant contributor to this is shipping including cruise ships.

Remember these ships are like mini villages (even empty) and whilst they are sat in Poole Bay, they are pumping out all sort of gases etc into the air. The cruise lines will blind you with words like “Scrubber” etc, which is meant to clean the air, but you can still see the outputs from the ships’ funnels clearly for yourself.

Whilst the ships are in open water I expect BCP can do very little, but we should encourage them to make contact with Carnival and express our concerns. Not forgetting the only reason the ships are in Poole Bay is because it costs them nothing, compared to mooring alongside in Southampton, which I believe can be anything around £10,000 per hour!

Of course the solution is shore side power, which the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth uses in Portsmouth, but I think the cruise lines are some way off that yet!

MARC REDDY

Sandringham Gardens, Bournemouth