Tracey McCulloch, a fellow air quality campaigner, wrote into The News about the recent High Court ruling.

Portsmouth has consistently breached World Health Organization guidelines, with 95 premature deaths each year attributed to air pollution by the council’s own figures, yet all we hear from Councillor Robert New, the cabinet member for environment, is that air quality is improving. We need action now to save lives in Portsmouth.

Robert New is quoted as saying “Improving air quality and reducing congestion underpins our local transport plan and is at the forefront of all our active travel initiatives. We have recently applied to the Air Quality Grant Fund, in the hope of progressing with further actions to reduce local air quality levels.”

Presumably saying we want to “reduce local air quality levels” was a typo! On the other hand, Portsmouth City Council seems to be mostly relying on wishful thinking in tackling air pollution.

A response letter was published in the paper titled “Punitive restrictions on local residents’ car use would kill our city“. Tracey had a further letter published that provided more background to the air quality situation in Portsmouth.

I was disappointed to see E Wilson’s letter (March 3rd) claiming that Portsmouth can’t survive without ever-increasing numbers of cars on our roads.  The whole point of the article referred to is that lives are already being shortened in the city by our poor air quality.

Let me fill everyone in on the context of my original concern, which was left out of the original article in The News on Feb 27th. On 22nd February it was announced that the UK government will not be appealing against a successful case by Client Earth (a group of lawyers) who, yet again, took our government back to the High court to rule that the plans that have been proposed so far to tackle air pollution were flawed and unlawful.
The judge then ordered ministers to require local authorities to investigate and identify measures to tackle illegal levels of pollution in 33 towns and cities as soon as possible.
And guess what? …. Portsmouth is Number 1 on that list! It concerns me greatly that no press attention has been given to this. Which is why I was prepared to speak up in the original statement in The News.

I have been concerned about rising air pollution in the city over the past few years and last year in June at a city council meeting I gave a deputation when the Portsmouth City Council air quality strategy was discussed. I objected to the lack of detail in the report and was assured thatthe action plan would be developed before that Xmas. In November last year the South East MEP went along to the council to discuss the urgency for this action plan. As yet we still have no action plan and there has been no consultation that needs to take place beforehand. Thecouncil reports on air pollution are currently being reviewed by groups in the city. I think we are all owed a response to this latest legal obligation. Groups in the City are joining together to work on making sure we get a proper action plan for this city. Please check LETPOMPEYBREATHE on Facebook to find out more.

The issue of having good alternatives to car use is an important one and hopefully will be addressed in a later blog post. The Breathing Cities campaign puts it this way:

The Breathing Cities campaign is about moving from cities and streets that are designed for cars, towards cities and streets that are designed for people. The more people choose to drive, the more the urban system is re-designed to accommodate drivers. And vice-versa if more people choose to walk, cycle and use public transport. Breathing Cities is about enabling people to use public transport, walk and cycle conveniently, and without the stress and danger of congestion, noise and pollution. The problems of air pollution and congestion are two really good reasons to focus on making our city transport systems less car dependent. Everyone will get around faster with fewer cars. It has also been shown that the noise that traffic produces means that people walking nearby are less likely to to talk, be patient, or help strangers, no matter how inviting the pavement may be. Even the sound of light car traffic can trigger stress. Breathing Cities is about making streets places that people choose to spend time in.