'Pollution costs lives': Campaign group's warning as Knaresborough junction continues to breach air quality limits

Friends of the Earth are calling for more to be done to tackle pollution at 233 hotspots across Yorkshire and the North East which failed to meet air quality standards - including Bond End in Knaresborough.

The bottlenecked junction had a major road revamp in 2018 when traffic lights were removed and two mini-roundabouts installed in a bid to cut exhaust fumes.

But an annual report from Harrogate Borough Council last week revealed how the troubled junction is still breaching annual pollution limits.

It is the only monitoring site in the district to do so - and one of 1,360 across England.

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Friends of the Earth's clean air campaigner Simon Bowens said leaders must end their "damaging fixation on building more roads” and focus more on infrastructure to support greener travel.

“Failing to fix air pollution costs lives. It also shows a failure to address the climate crisis", he said.

“If ministers want to avoid a return to the health-damaging and illegal levels of air pollution we had before lockdown, their enthusiasm for active travel needs to be a permanent switch and not just a short-term gap plugger.”

Bond End exceeded the annual average air quality target of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air for nitrogen dioxide in 2019.

It recorded 40.8 - down from 50.4 before the road revamp was completed in 2018.

The average must be below 40 to meet government air quality targets, while World Health Organisation guidelines set this as a safe limit to protect public health.

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Knaresborough town councillor Hannah Gostlow described the findings as "really disappointing" and said more should be done to discourage motorists from driving through the town centre.

Councillor David Goode said more time is needed to properly assess the situation in Knaresborough, but added he wasn't hopeful that traffic levels will decrease with the thousands of homes set to be built near the town.

"Bond End was always the first phase of a number of projects that needed to take place", he said. "We have got the York Place improvements and the Chain Lane and Wetherby Road traffic lights works still to come.

"Until those are completed we won't truly see how traffic levels will shape up, but the opposite side of the story is that we have got planning permission for 2,000 homes and that is bound to bring new pressures to the town."

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According to Friends of the Earth, road traffic is the leading cause of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which can inflame the lining of the lungs and reduce immunity to infections such as bronchitis.

Figures published this month show that air quality in towns and villages across the Harrogate district have improved by 12 per cent on average.

Coun Phil Ireland, cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability, said: "It’s encouraging to see these figures improving and nitrogen dioxide levels decreasing across the district. But, of course, there is always more that can be done and that’s why we have a regularly reviewed air quality action plan.

"We have a number of priorities for the future and I hope these, along with the difference the lockdown has made to people’s lifestyle choices, will encourage the levels to continue to fall."

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter