Parliament is in recess for Easter. It’s fantastic to be back home in Cheltenham, spending time with family and local community groups.
Although London is a great city, it’s also a relief to get out of the Big Smoke. Rarely has that moniker seemed more appropriate: our capital breached its legal limits for toxic air for the entire year in just the first five days of 2017. London’s mayor has described the capital's dirty air as a "public health emergency".
You can understand why. Air pollution contributes to about 40,000 premature deaths in the UK every year. For those affected, air pollution reduces life expectancy by an average of over eleven years. NHS advice is clear: air pollution can have a damaging effect, starting when a baby is in the womb and continuing right through to older age. It plays a role in many chronic conditions such as cancer, asthma, heart disease and neurological changes linked to dementia.
Here in Cheltenham the air is positively alpine by comparison. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves. It is still not good enough. Parts of town are designated as Air Quality Management Areas because of high levels of nitrogen dioxide – above the Government's limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air. That has been the case for several years now, but the issue seems no closer to being resolved.
The time has come to consider robust measures to tackle the problem. The issue of idling vehicles must be looked at again – specifically, buses and HGVs waiting in the town centre (particularly on the Prom) and cars idling at the school gates. A recent US study has found that long-term exposure to pollution from traffic is reducing children’s lung capacity by almost 20%, which has life-long health impacts.
There are some significant pilot schemes being run by other councils. Dudley Council has been raising awareness of air quality issues in schools with a particular focus on reducing school gate vehicle idling. Waltham Forest has gone even further: councillors, air pollution officers and volunteers are manning patrols at the start and end of the day.
It’s time this was looked at afresh. Anyone who has watched a child suffer with a chronic asthma attack will know how important it is to combat air pollution – for our own health and for that of future generations.