Pollution deaths add urgency to historic city's drive to cut traffic

Wide-ranging efforts are already underway to drive down the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in York, but the problem of air pollution caused by the thousands of vehicles snaking through the city's historic streets each day has continued to worsen in the last four years.

Senior councillors have admitted that the pollution caused by the vehicles' emissions is becoming an increasing concern now that research has revealed that about 158 premature deaths a year are linked to the city's air quality.

Proposals will be considered next week by York Council's executive to draw up a low emission strategy to focus on getting the oldest and most polluting vehicles off the city's streets.

Those behind the strategy hope it will better promote existing environmentally-friendly schemes – including York's successful Cycling City project and the park-and-ride sites.

York Council's leader Andrew Waller said: "There is an obligation for anyone running a vehicle in York and using the city to earn a living to play a part in improving air quality. But there is no magic bullet, and we need to look at bringing together the efforts which are already underway to have a co-ordinated approach to deal with the problem.

"We want to tackle it in a way to make sure that we can achieve the objectives.

"Not everyone is going to change their cars or travel habits overnight, but we need to get the message out that the air quality in York needs to improve significantly," he added.

Nitrogen dioxide is a respiratory irritant which affects vulnerable people such as the young and the elderly, and those suffering from asthma, emphysema and lung disease.

Data collected in York, which has the greatest amount of air quality monitoring equipment in the country outside London, has shown the extent of the problem of pollution.

The highest concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, which mainly comes from vehicle fumes, occurred last year when 25 of the 40 monitoring locations across York recorded levels above the targets.

Blackspots include the Fishergate gyratory, Holgate Road, Nunnery Lane and Gillygate, and the problems have been compounded by the city's narrow streets which mean the pollution is not easily dispersed.

However, the proposed strategy could eventually allow York to become the UK's first low emission city.

Councillor Waller also claimed that the plan would end controversial proposals for congestion charging, as the worst polluting vehicles were often the oldest and only represented a small percentage of York's traffic.

Instead, the area's major employers will be encouraged to provide their workers with more environmentally-friendly vehicles, and York Council is also looking to upgrade its own fleet to reduce emissions.

Drivers will be urged to use York's park-and-ride service instead of bringing vehicles into the city centre. This network will increase with developments earmarked for Upper Poppleton, Wigginton Road and Askham Bar.

The Cycling City project, which is part of a 90m nationwide initiative, has already seen a seven per cent increase in the number of people using bikes, and it is hoped that the figure will continue to rise to help reduce nitrogen dioxide levels.

Plans for the low emission strategy will be considered by the Council's executive next Tuesday.

If approved, the draft strategy should be ready by the end of the year.