CITY ROAD NO LONGER REGION’S MOST POLLUTED
COVENTRY’S Holyhead Road is no longer the region’s most polluted road - but it remains the biggest offender in the city.
The road was last year named as the most polluted stretch of road in the Midlands when it comes to pumping out nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
It had an annual average NO2 level of 75.6ug/m3 - almost double the legal limit of 40ug/m3 - according to research from Friends of the Earth.
But a data audit by the environmental campaign group based on 2018 numbers - the most recent available - has found that has dropped to 58.4ug/m3.
It is one of 10 roads in Coventry that had higher than legal limits the figure now places it outside the ‘top 10’ most polluting roads in the West Midlands.
St Chad’s in Birmingham has been given the dubious honour of the most polluted, with an average level of 74ug/m3. Holyhead Road has been targeted in the council’s Air Quality Action Plan to reduce the levels of NO2 by opening up a new link to the ring road on Upper Hill Street, and creating a new Coundon cycle route.
A Coventry City Council spokesman said: “There was a small rise in 2019 but the overall trend is downwards and this can roughly be put down to the use of newer Euro 5 and 6 engines in vehicles, and the weather will always have a significant impact.
“At the same time the NO2 levels on the eastern section of Holyhead Road still exceed the legal threshold, showing that there is still work to do to improve air quality, and that is why the council is putting together its air quality plans as recently approved by the council’s cabinet.”
However campaigners including Extinction Rebellion Coventry - who protested in the city on Sunday, August 2 - argue the plans for Holyhead Road will not solve the pollution problem.
Campaigner Merle Gering added: “The fundamental part of it is moving traffic from one area to another from Holyhead Road to Upper Hill Street and a few electric buses onto Foleshill Road.
“It is just lacking ambition. It is just spreading the bad fumes around a bit more.”
The study from Friends of the Earth is based on the most recent data submitted by English councils to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on sites which exceed safe air pollution levels.
The group checked sites measuring NO2 - a pollutant mainly caused by road traffic and burning fossil fuels, which increases the likelihood of illnesses such as lung disease when inhaled.
The work showed there are 1,360 sites across England where annual average concentrations of NO2 are higher than 40 micrograms per cubic metre, slightly lower than the 1,591 figure the previous year.