Park and ride at Preston Barracks and lorry emissions zone proposed to improve air quality

An action plan to improve air quality has suggested creating a park and ride at Preston Barracks and low emissions zones for lorries and construction traffic.

Brighton and Hove City Council is asking for people’s views on the draft air quality action plan, currently out for formal consultation.

It highlights the stretch of North Street by the Clock Tower as being in need of special attention with the highest levels of nitrogen oxides in Sussex.

About 97% of the city’s buses travel along there, 2,450 buses every day. The report suggests applying for funding to develop technology to automatically switch buses to the lowest emissions mode (either electric or selective catalytic reduction) and look more closely at hill starts.

Written by the council’s air quality specialist Samuel Rouse and dedicated to those who suffer from respiratory illness, the report makes a wide range of suggestions to combat emissions elsewhere in the city, including:

• Planting leafy trees such as London Planes and silver birches
• Park and ride schemes at Preston Barracks, the Amex car park on non-match days and university car parks
• Lobbying for the reopening of the Uckfield to Lewes train line
• Upgrading the Wilson Avenue-Drove Road route to relieve congestion on Lewes Road, Warren Road, Rottingdean High Street and Marine Drive
• A low emissions zone for HGVs along the A259 near Portslade and the A23 and Edward Street, and for construction traffic from the Royal Sussex to Churchill Square
• Re-routing traffic from Rottingdean High Street and imposing a weight restriction there
• A countdown display at the level crossing in Boundary Road, Portslade
• Encouraging a niche market in light low emission taxis licenced for one or two passengers

Mr Rouse writes: “Recent research shows that airborne pollution has direct impacts on human health.

“Modern sanitation was a major breakthrough for environmental health as it massively reduced
the risk of exposure to cholera, typhoid and e-coli.

“A similar societal shift now needs to happen in urban areas to separate combustion emissions being discharged to the actual environment where thousands of people, live, sleep, work, and travel.

“Repeated exposure to very fine microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and enter the blood stream can cause myriad health problems and serious risk of death.”

The consultation ends on May 5, and so it up will be up to whoever wins the election two days later to decide which parts are pursued and implemented.

Ian Davey, the current Green adminstration’s lead member for transport, said: “We know that air quality is a concern for residents across the city from Rottingdean to Portslade and many areas in between.

“Whilst there have been significant improvement over the last few years with 45 out of 47 monitoring stations recording lower emissions there is still a long way to go.

“The Low Emission Zone that we have just set up in the city centre is already bringing positive results and will help drive emissions down across the city.”

Councillor Gill Mitchell, Labour’s transport spokesperson, said: “Tackling poor air quality is one of the major challenges for the city.

“The current consultation includes several proposals that are not immediately deliverable.

“We agree that city centre pollution is a worry and the Clock Tower area has to be looked at but this must be done in conjunction with other planned transport schemes so that traffic congestion is not increased.”

Nitrogen oxides emissions (anything above 40 μg/m3 requires environmental protection)

*114 μg/m3 as a two year average is monitored on North Street above the pavement above the kerb where there are high pedestrian counts, but no permanent residence.