YP Comment: Action needed on pollution

So the suggestion by Highways England of imposing a pollution-related speed limit on the M1 near Sheffield, one of the motorway’s busiest stretches, is worthy of serious consideration, even though there is a contradiction at its heart.

Even as concern about pollution has grown, the volumes of traffic on the M1 have been allowed to increase by Highways England via the introduction of the “smart motorway” scheme that has created an additional lane.

It remains to be seen whether limiting speed to cut pollution will work, or, as Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts asserts, is bound to fail. It is, however, worth trialling because rising pollution, with its serious threat to health, needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency, and the Government must give it the priority it deserves.

M1 ‘pollution’ speed cut is a Mickey Mouse idea says MP