Marking Clean Air Day, a strategy to tackle poor air quality has been launched by Oxfordshire County Council.
Currently the largest environmental risk to the health of the public in the UK according to the council, the new strategy for Oxfordshire will focus in on three main approaches. These approaches are to reduce the emissions of outdoors and indoor pollution, extend the distance from pollution sources, and to protect the people that are most at risk.
The strategy is also being supported by a route map that will outline the work the council is already doing, alongside what it can do in the short term. Due to the close links between air quality and climate action, the air quality strategy will also use the council’s ongoing climate action as a basis.
Video credit: Oxfordshire County Council
Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, Councillor Liz Leffman, said:
“Air quality has been improving across Oxfordshire in recent decades. However, levels remain above the World Health Organisation standards in many places. It is critical that we work to improve air quality to deliver the council’s priorities, particularly prioritising the health and wellbeing of residents.
“We want to do everything within our power to clean up the air in Oxfordshire. Our vision is to accelerate the improvement in Oxfordshire. Our vision is to accelerate the improvement in Oxfordshire’s air quality to reduce the health and environmental impacts of dirty air, so ensuring that all residents can all breathe safely.
“By burning less fuel through changing how we travel, heat our homes and the things we buy, we can create environments that are better for our mental wellbeing, health, nature and our climate too.”
With the impact that transport plays in air pollution, the councils local transport and connectivity plan will be central to improving the air quality of the area. This will include targets to reduce car journeys by a third by 2040, as well as increasing the number of cycling trips from 600,000 to one million by 2031. Also crucial to how successful the strategy is will be the collaborations between the district council and the city council. These partnerships will work to support efforts to monitor and improve air quality in key hotspots.
Councillor Michael O’Connor, Cabinet Member for Public Health, and Inequalities at Oxfordshire County Council, added:
“There is no safe level of air pollution according to the WHO. It damages our health at any level and its effects are often lethal: up to 40,000 deaths are attributable to air pollution in the UK every year.”
Image credit: iStock
