Campaigners seek commitment from Greater Manchester Mayoral Candidates
The Breathe Clean Air Group has asked candidates in the forthcoming election for Mayor of Greater Manchester to pledge themselves to do what they can to achieve clean air in the region.
The pledge, in the form of a Manifesto for Clean Air in Greater Manchester, includes a list of commitments which the candidates should sign, and adopt as part of their electoral campaign and future mayoral policy on air quality.
The manifesto also includes two case studies at Davyhulme in Trafford and Mossley in Tameside as well as seven pages of references highlighting the dangers to human health of air pollution.
The campaign group has not just reiterated the commonly held belief that the source of all air pollution is from motor vehicle exhausts. They have highlighted the more dangerous emissions from incineration, power generation, industrial processes, wood processing and domestic and commercial wood-burning appliances.
The eight point declaration includes:
a) more in-depth scrutiny and refusal by Local Planning Authorities for planning applications that have air-polluting processes, especially near residential areas;
b) better and independent measuring and monitoring of air-polluting processes;
c) challenging the Environment Agency to identify dirty processes and encouraging the EA to refuse to issue Environmental Permits when necessary;
d) challenging the Government’s policy that allows air polluting processes to flourish;
e) declaring that Greater Manchester becomes a biomass-Free Zone;
f) launching a campaign to ban/discourage domestic wood-burning stoves;
g) doing everything possible to stop the Barton Renewable Energy Plant;
h) doing everything possible to stop wood dust pollution endangering neighbours.
Chairman of the Breathe Clean Air Group, Peter Kilvert said “the air we breathe in Greater Manchester is no longer clean and is getting worse. It’s time to reverse the trend in order to protect the health of our residents, especially the children.”
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