Highways Agency Says Motorway Pollution Too High
Members of the Breathe Clean Air Group attended the public consultation on the future of the M60 motorway between junctions 8 at Sale and 20 at Rochdale, held at the George H. Carnall Leisure Centre last weekend. The proposals concerned improving motorway travel by converting the hard shoulder to an extra traffic lane.
“The Agency admitted that nitrogen dioxide air pollution caused by traffic fumes was already 50 percent above the regulated maximum,” said Pete Kilvert, Chairman of the group, “and we understand that they will be scrapping plans to install the extra lane between junction 8 at Sale and 18 at the M66 junction near Prestwich. It seems that limiting the speed of vehicles along this already busy section is the answer to controlling exhaust emissions pollution”.
The Breathe Clean Air Group has been campaigning to improve air quality for over three years since the announcement to build the Barton Renewable Energy Plant. Trafford Council rejected the plant, but a public Inquiry in November last year ruled in favour of the plant. Now Trafford Council has appealed against that ruling.
“The major polluter in this area is the motorway,” said Pete Kilvert, “but any additional air pollution is taking us in the wrong direction. Proposed developments such as the Biomass waste incinerator and the Coal Bed Methane extraction plant (Fracking) in Davyhulme will not only add extra nitrogen dioxides to the motorway pollution, but other nasties as well such as heavy metals, Particulate Matter, dioxins and benzene, all of which can cause cancer.
The Breathe Clean Air Group is concerned about the five Trafford schools that are within yards of the motorway and in the fall-out zone of the proposed waste incinerator and fracking plant. It is well known that children’s lungs are not fully developed and are susceptible to air pollution. Children exercise more, and breathe in more than adults. Any air pollution that settles on the school playing areas will be kicked up and breathed in. “That is why we must reduce air pollution,” added Mr Kilvert, “to protect the next generation as well as the current population”.