Multi-storey no good for health

So Simon Cook thinks that residents will appreciate the multi-storey carpark destined to be built in Station Road West and that evidence that an increase in air-pollution in the St Dunstan’s area of the city are “frankly ridiculous”. His arrogant, disdainful and contemptuous attitude, along with the majority of the myopically-sighted city council, is appalling.

The city council has a duty of care to its residents. With the exception of councillors Amy Baker (Blean Forest) , Nick Eden-green (Wincheap) and Simon Warley (Westgate), who opposed this scheme when voted on at the planning committee on April 3, the support for this disastrous scheme is nothing short of a dereliction of duty. In last week’s Gazette retired GP Dr David Pratt wrote of evidence of premature deaths and damage to the unborn from “particulate matter” and described this scheme as “crass folly,” while both Anna Peckham and Emily Shirley too highlighted the life-threatening consequences of increased air-pollution in what is already a heavily-polluted area of our city. In Lewisham, resident Rosamund Kissi-debrah has presented a 100,000-strong petition to the Attorney General, who has now called for a new inquest into the death of her nine-year-old daughter Ella to establish if unlawful levels of air pollution and a spike in dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide contributed to her death.

If this car park is built, Canterbury City Council and councillors responsible can expect legal challenges and to be similarly held to account for their actions. How then will the city council explain the rise in premature deaths and increase in life-limiting conditions?