in the UK outside of London
Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet has approved an action plan to clear up one of the UK’s most polluted roads.
The Hafodyrynys Air Quality Action Plan aims to address the level of pollution along the A472 that runs through the village. Financial support will now be sought from the Welsh Government to fund a long-term solution. A further report will be presented to cabinet on its delivery in the future.
The plan outlines short and long-term alterations to infrastructure. Among them, the option of a new bypass will be investigated, as well as the feasibility of demolishing affected housing on the village’s Woodside Terrace.
Localised strategies have also been suggested, with greater publicity of alternative transport, travel plans for local HGV fleet operators and an improvement to walking and cycling routes all explored.
Cllr Mike Thomas of Crumlin welcomed the development of a number of proposals in the action plan, and said: “I will remain committed to improving the situation for residents and future generations of Hafodyrynys.”
Figures from 2016 found that the A472 had higher levels of nitrogen dioxide than any other road in the United Kingdom outside of central London.
It is estimated that air pollution is responsible for as many as 30,000 premature deaths in the UK every year, while Public Health Wales say five people die because of air pollution every day in Wales.
The agreement of the plan by the council follows increasing pressure on the Welsh Government to address air pollution, with a High Court case due to be heard on February 23.
James Thornton, Chief Executive of ClientEarth, the environmental law organisation who will testify at the case, said: “People in Wales are choking on toxic fumes on a daily basis. It is astonishing that so far the Welsh Government has failed to lift a finger to help them.”
In response, a spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “We recognise more needs to be done to tackle air pollution which is why, earlier this month we made clear our commitment to work across government to improve air quality in Wales.
“We are working with Caerphilly Council to help them bring its area within the legal limits in the soonest possible time and to protect the health of people over a wider geographical area.”
As usual lots of talking and ideas,but none of the above will happen anytime soon – infrastructure changes will take years.
Meanwhile the residents affected continue to suffer !
This road is not alone, White Street in Caerffili was identified as an air quaity management problem years ago as was Cardiff Road. The dilemma nobody in authority wants to address, or talk about, is over building in the borough.
Because there is virtually no work in the valeys people must commute by road. Public transport is dire and people who need to be in work early in the morning or late at night must use cars. The great and good in the Welsh Assembly pontificate about sticking plasters to improve matters but fail to either stop building on our green fields or provide the mass transit system that can move people and goods around without increasing pollution caused by road traffic.
Spot on – and they continue to ignore these issues,because it is the cheapest option to leave things as they are ( or to be more exact,allow the situation to worsen ).
As some people have posted on here in the past – more housing is needed but that has to be managed responsibly and in conjunction with the surrounding infrastructure.
We cannot keep building houses in areas that are already over developed – to the point where the infrastructure becomes permanently gridlocked and the pollution increases to cause even wider damage to the health of local residents ( which will in future years place even more pressure on our NHS ).
The only way to lower air pollution is to have an effective public service, our bus are shocking and our trains don’t run on time or are cancelled. Trains and buses need to be more frequent.