Calls for action to tackle Notts' toxic air

Environmental campaigners claim parts of Nottinghamshire are likely to have toxic air for years to come if the Government doesn't act quickly.
Portrait of Oliver HayesPortrait of Oliver Hayes
Portrait of Oliver Hayes

Friends of the Earth (FOE) states the air in Broxtowe is currently toxic, while the air is likely to be toxic in Ashfield until 2018, and Nottingham until 2023. The charity claims the air in Bolsover, in Derbyshire, is also likely to be toxic until 2019.

The figures have been brought to light after FOE carried out analysis of the Government’s new air pollution modelling.

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The charity is now calling for properly funded, charging Clean Air Zones (CAZs) to be introduced by the end of 2018, covering all places where air is otherwise predicted to be at illegal levels in 2019 and beyond. This would mean 58 local authorities should be required and funded to introduce, by the end of 2018, CAZs to restrict the worst polluting vehicles from areas with illegal air pollution.

FOE claims there are more than 2,000 early deaths due to air pollution in the East Midlands every year. Indeed Public Health England attributed 430 early deaths to air pollution across Nottinghamshire alone in 2010.

Oliver Hayes, FOE campaigner, said: “Shockingly, air pollution is predicted to continue damaging people’s lungs for many years to come. People from Nottingham would be breathing toxic air for the next six years without further action. The Government must do far more to protect the public’s lungs from this pollution, including urgently introducing Clean Air Zones by the end of 2018 for everywhere which would otherwise have illegally dirty air.”