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Air quality a problem for small towns as well as cities Air quality a problem for small towns as well as cities
(6 months later)
The air-quality problem (The last gasp, G2, 20 March) is not just a problem in big cities. Crediton, population about 8,000, was declared an air-quality management area in 2003. The A377, which connects Exeter and Barnstaple, now carries more than 14,000 vehicles a day and passes through the centre. Our air quality does not meet the EU standard for either particulates, or nitrogen dioxide. Devon county council, which had agreed in 1991 on a route for a northern bypass, cancelled the planning permission for this. It has just started work on a relief road, which may help improve air quality at the eastern end of the town, but cannot help to reduce traffic through the high street, used by shoppers and children. We cannot now discover how bad the air quality is because the district council, which installed an air-quality monitor 10 years ago, putting the data straight on to the web, withdrew this facility three years ago.
John Boyle
Crediton Traffic Action Group, Devon		The air-quality problem (The last gasp, G2, 20 March) is not just a problem in big cities. Crediton, population about 8,000, was declared an air-quality management area in 2003. The A377, which connects Exeter and Barnstaple, now carries more than 14,000 vehicles a day and passes through the centre. Our air quality does not meet the EU standard for either particulates, or nitrogen dioxide. Devon county council, which had agreed in 1991 on a route for a northern bypass, cancelled the planning permission for this. It has just started work on a relief road, which may help improve air quality at the eastern end of the town, but cannot help to reduce traffic through the high street, used by shoppers and children. We cannot now discover how bad the air quality is because the district council, which installed an air-quality monitor 10 years ago, putting the data straight on to the web, withdrew this facility three years ago.
John Boyle
Crediton Traffic Action Group, Devon
• John Vidal revives the misleading idea that coal-fired power stations were the cause of the high pollution levels that led to some 4,000 excess deaths in the London smog of 1952. The consequent Clean Air Act of 1956 pointed the finger firmly at domestic chimneys, the major contributors to concentrations of smoke and sulphur dioxide at ground level. This prompted a move to cleaner domestic fuels. The electricity industry policy of employing particulate filtration, plus tall stacks so that gaseous pollutants were well diluted before they reached the ground, was vindicated. This approach only came into question when acid rain and ozone emerged as issues in the 1970s.
Anthony Robson
Former CEGB environmental engineer		• John Vidal revives the misleading idea that coal-fired power stations were the cause of the high pollution levels that led to some 4,000 excess deaths in the London smog of 1952. The consequent Clean Air Act of 1956 pointed the finger firmly at domestic chimneys, the major contributors to concentrations of smoke and sulphur dioxide at ground level. This prompted a move to cleaner domestic fuels. The electricity industry policy of employing particulate filtration, plus tall stacks so that gaseous pollutants were well diluted before they reached the ground, was vindicated. This approach only came into question when acid rain and ozone emerged as issues in the 1970s.
Anthony Robson
Former CEGB environmental engineer
• John Vidal is wrong to trivialise the enormous amount of work on improving air quality in London. Since the mayor took office, emissions of dangerous particulates have fallen by 15% and of oxides of nitrogen by 20%. An ambitious package of measures includes building Europe's largest fleet of low-emission hybrid buses, retiring the oldest taxis and introducing tighter emission standards for lorries and vans. The ultra-low emission zone in the centre of London is not "PR"; it could provide a major spur for the further development and mass take-up of zero- and low-emission vehicles. Add in a £20m fund to help London's boroughs target new spending on local air pollution hot spots and it's clear that air quality in the capital is taken extremely seriously.
Matthew Pencharz
Mayor of London's environment adviser		• John Vidal is wrong to trivialise the enormous amount of work on improving air quality in London. Since the mayor took office, emissions of dangerous particulates have fallen by 15% and of oxides of nitrogen by 20%. An ambitious package of measures includes building Europe's largest fleet of low-emission hybrid buses, retiring the oldest taxis and introducing tighter emission standards for lorries and vans. The ultra-low emission zone in the centre of London is not "PR"; it could provide a major spur for the further development and mass take-up of zero- and low-emission vehicles. Add in a £20m fund to help London's boroughs target new spending on local air pollution hot spots and it's clear that air quality in the capital is taken extremely seriously.
Matthew Pencharz
Mayor of London's environment adviser
• John Vidal's report is timely and worrying. The invisible nature of the current pollution, compared with the smogs of the 1950s, is the main reason it is ignored. London is the UK city that is worst affected, so it is vital that the mayor, together with all London local authorities – and Defra – work to improve air quality. We in the Square Mile are working directly with businesses to develop effective actions that can be taken by firms to improve air quality in the world's leading business district. But there are no quick fixes and it may well require action from central government.
John Tomlinson
City of London Corporation's port health and environmental services committee		• John Vidal's report is timely and worrying. The invisible nature of the current pollution, compared with the smogs of the 1950s, is the main reason it is ignored. London is the UK city that is worst affected, so it is vital that the mayor, together with all London local authorities – and Defra – work to improve air quality. We in the Square Mile are working directly with businesses to develop effective actions that can be taken by firms to improve air quality in the world's leading business district. But there are no quick fixes and it may well require action from central government.
John Tomlinson
City of London Corporation's port health and environmental services committee
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