‘Air pollution in the city is worse than in London’
REPORT SAYS COUNCIL HAS FAILED TO WAKE UP TO ‘KILLER CONSEQUENCES’
GREATER Manchester’s deadly air pollution crisis is worse than London’s, new research has warned – but local leaders have failed to wake up to its killer consequences.
A report by think-tank IPPR North, using research by Kings College London, argues that in order to cut pollution in the region to legal levels, traffic will have to be restricted into the city centre or some kind of clean air zone charging introduced ‘in the immediate future.’ But it finds local strategies and leaders have failed to recognise the situation’s urgency.
Central Manchester has the highest rate of hospital admissions for asthma in the country, finds the report, followed by North Manchester. It links the prevalence of the condition to tiny, invisible polluting particles emitted by vehicles – including buses, of which Greater Manchester has some of the country’s dirtiest.
The report, called Atmosphere, concludes that 1.6m ‘life years’ will be lost to people living in the conurbation over the coming century unless urgent action is taken, while air pollution is costing the local economy £1bn annually.
It calls on Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to set up a taskforce looking at air pollution levels – described in the report as an ‘invisible killer’ - as well as looking at the state of the region’s highlypolluting bus fleet.
Pointing to the World Health Organisation’s list of most-polluted UK towns and cities – which has London in 22nd place but Manchester at 2nd, behind Scunthorpe – it says too little attention has been paid to the issue here so far. “While so much attention is given to air pollution in London, Greater Manchester in fact has the highest rates of emergency admissions to hospital for asthma in the whole country – Central Manchester and North Manchester NHS trusts have emergency admissions at double the national average,” it says.
“And evidence shows that the most vulnerable people and those living in disadvantaged areas are at greater risk from air pollution.” The report argues local politicians have not woken up to the scale of the situation, adding: “Although government and the Greater Manchester combined authority recognises the general problem and is taking incremental steps to be legally compliant, there is little recognition of the scale or urgency of Greater Manchester’s crisis.”
Mr Burnham’s office has been contacted for comment.