Oxford-wide action plan aims to cut pollution (From Oxford Mail)

Oxford-wide action plan aims to cut pollution

6:00am Thursday 22nd April 2010 in News By Reg Little

Stagecoach Oxfordshire driver Andy Pang watches as a passenger uses the new smart card reader on his bus

WORRYING air quality assessments have prompted a proposal for an Oxford-wide plan to combat pollution.

The action plan proposal comes as it emerged that nitrogen dioxide levels in the St Clement’s area of East Oxford are a third higher than those in the city centre.

Until now the city centre has been the focus of clean air initiatives, with schemes to pedestrianise much of the area and reduce the number of buses passing through its streets.

Last year, St Aldate’s was judged to be the ninth most polluted street in England.

But the failure to bring down pollution levels in the city fast enough to meet European targets has led Oxford City Council to proposed declaring all of Oxford an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).

Councils use the status to flag up areas needing special anti-pollution measures, when clean-air objectives “are not likely to be achieved”.

The Town Hall’s proposal would result in tough new pollution level targets being set, which Oxfordshire County Council will be largely responsible for meeting, as the authority responsible for highways and transport.

John Tanner, the city council’s executive member for a cleaner greener Oxford, said just having Low Emission Zones in the city centre was no longer adequate, with many pollution “hotspots” elsewhere needing to be tackled.

He said: “We’re saying to the county council, ‘there’s a real problem of pollution here, please do something about it’. And we fully expect County Hall to respond.

“The problem areas are some of the main junctions, such as The Plain, Summertown, Headington, and the Iffley Road-Donnington Bridge, Weirs Lane and Abingdon Road junctions.

“We’re going for a city-wide approach. There’s no point in simply moving pollution problems on to other parts of the city.”

The county council will have to implement new action plans to improve air quality to meet mandatory European Union targets for pollutants, including particulate matter from exhausts and nitrogen dioxide, which is linked with respiratory problems.

Last night, a report to the city council’s east area committee spelled out the high level of pollution in parts of East Oxford.

Green councillor Nuala Young blamed high levels of traffic in Cowley Road and express buses travelling to London and its airports.

She said there was now a strong case for looking at stopping the London services from entering Oxford, instead operating them from the park-and-ride sites, and providing shuttle buses to the city centre.

She said: “The particular concern is nitrogen dioxide. You have to remember that this is a residential area but the figures show it’s far more polluted than even the city centre.”

Consultation on creating the citywide pollution action zone runs until Friday, April 30.

Nitrogen dioxide levels are coming down in many parts of the city centre already, with the introduction of more low-emission and hybrid-powered buses expected to bring about further falls.

Under the county council’s Transform Oxford strategy, the number of buses running through the area is also expected to fall.

In January, Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach signed a deal with the council to introduce joint ticketing and timetabling, to improve the co-ordination of services.

Stagecoach has spent £300,000 replacing ticket machines on its Oxfordshire fleet of 156 buses and coaches to allow it to launch in a smartcard ticketing system – similar to Oxford Bus Company’s Key card – to speed up boarding times.

Stagecoach Oxfordshire managing director Martin Sutton said joint ticketing would be introduced later this year but could not give an exact date.