TACKLE TOWN’S POLLUTION
■ PARTS of Ashbourne’s town centre could become the first in the Derbyshire Dales to be designated an Air Quality Management Area, after a report that found excessive ‘toxic’ nitrogen dioxide levels beside some local roads.
PARTS of Ashbourne’s town centre could be about to become the first in the Derbyshire Dales to be designated an Air Quality Management Area, in response to a report that found excessive nitrogen dioxide levels were measured by the roadside.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has been measuring the level of pollutants in the town centre for several years, and its monitoring stations have been picking up levels of nitrogen dioxide from the heavy traffic that have exceeded the level the Government deems to be safe since 2019.
The Government sets down targets for all local authorities to keep levels of the chemical down below 40 micrograms per cubic metre but stretches of Buxton Road, Market Place, and St John Street were found to be recording well above this.
Seven monitoring tubes close to the northbound carriageway of Buxton Road, and one close to the Market Place’s triangular junction with St John Street recorded, on average, between 45.49 micrograms per cubic metre and 49.72 micrograms per cubic metre – well above the target set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
However, the peak levels of nitrogen dioxide have often been dramatically higher than 40 micrograms per cubic metre, reaching 62.03 in January 2020.
Tests show that the site was over the safe limit for every month of 2019 and January, February and March in 2020.
The lowest average level recorded from January 2019 until lockdown was 41.21 micrograms per cubic metre in April 2019, still above the acceptable maximum.
In comparison, Stafford Street in Derby city centre, which has been at the centre of government attention for air pollution problems, has an average level of 43 micrograms per cubic metre.
The data from 2019, which was all recorded before the coronavirus lockdowns, was sent off to a specialist firm which has produced a report that will go before district councillors ahead of a meeting this evening. At the virtual meeting, councillors will be asked to consider declaring an Air Quality Management Area, encompassing Buxton Road from the junction with Windmill Lane and North Avenue, to the junction with St Johns Street and in St John Street itself, from Fresh Choice greengrocers to the junction with Cokayne Avenue and Park Road.
If members of the Community and Environment Committee agree to declare the Air Quality Management Area, the district council’s officers will then formulate an action plan aimed at tackling the area’s issues.
Derbyshire County Council is currently working on a bypass scheme for the town, which would take heavy A515 traffic away from the town centre and away from Buxton Road, but funding has yet to be secured for the multi-million pound scheme.
The potential for a bypass was mentioned in the report from RSK Environment Ltd, which said the data would need to be re-evaluated should such a scheme go ahead.
When the 2019 pollutant data was first published, Buxton Road resident Bob Pugh told the News Telegraph traffic had grown steadily busier up and down the hill, and he was not surprised to hear it had exceeded safe levels.
He said: “You’ve only got to wipe your finger across any window in Buxton Hill, even about half an hour after you’ve cleaned it, and you’ve got a black finger from the sooty black deposits.
“And that’s what we’re breathing in. Not just the Nitrogen Oxide, but all the particulates coming off the traffic.
“They (the district council) can’t just go on waiting for a bypass, there’s got to be a short-term strategy put in place. And it’s got to be done fairly quickly.”
The only other roads in Derbyshire subject to an Air Quality Management Area are the entire length of Osmaston Road in Derby, inner and outer ring-roads in the city, sections of Derby’s A52, as well as Derby Road and Nottingham Road in Spondon.
Councillors are due to meet to discuss the report over the Zoom video conference platform from 6pm this evening, and the meeting will be broadcast on Youtube.
The district council can’t just go on waiting for a bypass, there’s got to be a short-term strategy.
Bob Pugh