National Clean Air day: Dorset village with highest pollution levels in England
Greatest Hits Radio speaks with the West Dorset Village with the highest air pollution levels in the country.
Today is national clean air day and Greatest Hits Radio has been speaking with the West Dorset village with the highest air pollution levels in the country.
The government's air quality targets state nitrogen dioxide levels should be below 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air, but the latest figures show Chideock's was more than double that.
The Chideock Hill House site reported 97.7 micrograms per cubic metre of air in 2018, the latest figures available.
That's the highest level in the country, second only to a taxi rank in Sheffield, which reported 91.7 micrograms.
Tony Peacock is on Chideock Parish Council. He said there are two causes:
"Simply geography is mainly the case.
"Chideock's centred between two hills; Chideock Hill with a 15% gradient at the steepest, and West Hill with a gradient at 10%.
"In addition to that, the volume of traffic, particularly at weekends, even at Christmas you'll see the traffic will zoom when people are coming down."
He says there's frequently a powerful smell in the village, that of metal or burning rubber.
According to Friends of the Earth, road traffic is the leading cause of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which can inflame the lining of the lungs and reduce immunity to infections such as bronchitis.
The group’s clean air campaigner Simon Bowens said:
“Failing to fix air pollution costs lives. It also shows a failure to address the climate crisis.
“If ministers want to avoid a return to the health-damaging and illegal levels of air pollution we had before lockdown, their enthusiasm for ‘active travel’ needs to be a permanent switch and not just a short-term gap plugger.”
Across the South West, 108 sites recorded annual averages that failed to meet air quality standards, six of which registered levels of more than 60 micrograms per cubic metre.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said: “Air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 – emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 33% and are at their lowest level since records began.
“But we know there is more to do, which is why we are taking urgent action to curb the impact air pollution has on communities across England through the delivery of our £3.8 billion plan to clean up transport and tackle NO2 pollution.”