Letter: Borough and County Councils Must Work Together to Tackle Air Pollution

Published on: 29 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 29 Mar, 2019

From: Fiona Curtis

In response to: Fines Loom for Idling Your Engine Outside a School

The concept of moving traffic out of towns is a popular one, but it raises serious issues for surrounding villages when viable alternative solutions are not considered alongside radical plans for change and growth.

Large swathes of southern Guildford lie in AONB and there are not many options when it comes to east-west movement across this stretch. So it is not surprising to see in the most recent air quality report for Guildford that the B3000, the A281 and Old Portsmouth Road (ie all the main routes south of Guildford) have a problem with pollution, which we know is because of traffic volume, congestion and proximity of buildings to busy main roads.

The ten-point list of solutions is unlikely to have any real impact in Compton (which has had a known problem for six years and an AQMA [Air Quality Management Area] in place for over one year, but no action plan).

Real action needs to be taken to make cycling safer (narrow cycle lanes on busy roads are lethal) and to make public transport better than taking the car.

Just as Brexit needs cross-party cooperation, this problem needs to be addressed jointly by GBC and SCC. At the moment we have GBC and the environment department making policy and SCC saying they can’t be implemented or policed. How this can be resolved whilst public transport is being cut and Local Plans include thousands of new homes (and cars) that will rely on these roads (Dunsfold and Blackwell Farm being key on this stretch), heavens only knows.

Postponing solutions on the basis that modal shift or elimination of diesel vehicles or greater use of electric vehicles is on the way, is unacceptable. The problem is current and must be dealt with now. Indeed the Welsh government intervened to insist Caerphilly council acts positively when they attempted to ignore the problem the basis that it would, one day, go away.

Responses to Letter: Borough and County Councils Must Work Together to Tackle Air Pollution

Jim Allen Reply

March 29, 2019 at 3:56 pm

Councillors could always refuse to vote for the Local Plan. This would remove in excess of 45,000 additional vehicles in the area.
Brian Holt Reply

March 29, 2019 at 5:17 pm

In reply to Fiona Curtis’ comment, “we need to make public transport better than taking the car”, it’s not as easy as that.

The reason is bus company’s all over the country have always been short of bus drivers for many years, they cannot get enough drivers, as it’s not a job people want to do. How many want to start at 5.30 am on a very cold morning, or be on a late evening shift finishing about 11.30 pm, working shifts that include Sundays and Bank Holidays?

If the bus is late it’s you the driver who has to take the complaints from moaning passengers, regardless of why the reason which could because road works, an accident, or even a route diversion.

So where are these extra bus drivers going to come from in Guildford, at a time when there is already a shortage?
Wayne Smith Reply

March 29, 2019 at 5:18 pm

The issue of pollution outside schools is not a problem local to Guildford, it’s a national one. An issue that central government should address by making it an offence to idle a car engine while parked on any public highway.

Will the GBC proposal be a restriction directly outside schools? What about the cars that park up to 1/4 mile away?

Either way, GBC will be no more effective at enforcing their new restrictions than they are of the parking on yellow lines, pavements and anywhere else that school car parker’s deem appropriate at pick-up and drop-off times.