Tom Wigley spoke about air pollution at our demonstration last night outside the Town Hall. He outlined what we know about air pollution in Maidenhead, and what we don’t know. And he explained that, if adopted, the Borough Local Plan will push back our council’s target date for achieving air quality objectives to 2032.
Why all the fuss about air pollution?
Well, it’s simply bad for your health, but don’t just take my word for it.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says “Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health.”
The Government says “Air pollution is a major public health risk, ranking alongside cancer, heart disease and obesity. It shortens lives and damages quality of life.”
A report from Transport for New Homes called “Building Car Dependency: The Tarmac Suburbs of the Future”, reported in the Guardian (7 February 2022) finds that: “Rather than the walkable, green, and sustainable places that both the Government and developers envisage for future living, new greenfield housing has become even more car-based than before and the trend has extended to surrounding areas, with out-of-town retail, leisure, food outlets and employment orientated around new road systems.” (1)
Inevitably, building new homes on the golf course will generate more polluting road traffic.
Our own Council acknowledges health damage caused by air pollution, but it isn’t taking any effective action to tackle it.
Let’s start with Air Quality Management Areas
The Royal Borough has five AQMAs where air pollution is acknowledged as a problem (3).
In 2005 the first two were declared in Windsor and Maidenhead.
In 2009 the Bray/Holyport AQMA was declared.
In 2014 the last two were declared; one in Windsor centred around the road junction leading to Legoland and Ascot and one in Wraysbury close to the M25.
The Maidenhead AQMA covers the entire town centre from the river Thames in the East to Castle Hill in the West, Cordwallis Road in the North and the Braywick Sports Centre in the South.
Maidenhead Golf Course actually abuts the SW corner of this AQMA.
So, Maidenhead is one big AQMA where people live, work and shop and children attend school and play sports.
What do we know?
Air Quality in Maidenhead and across the whole Borough may actually be far worse than we realise because the Council (which serves us) doesn’t measure all pollutants for which there are National Air Quality Objectives (2).
The Council measures nitrogen dioxide levels at 43 sites across the Borough.
But the Council does not measure PM2.5 particulates, Ozone, Sulphur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Butadiene, Benzene, Lead and hydrocarbons.
But there are National Air Quality Objectives for all of them.
So we’ve no idea how much of these pollutants are in the air we breathe.
The Council measures PM10 particulates at one, single site; Frascati Way here in Maidenhead and it uses those measurements to predict PM2.5 levels for the entire Borough.
So, we can’t possibly know how bad is the air we breathe if pollutants aren’t measured.
Target Dates
The target date for achieving the nitrogen dioxide air quality objective was 2005.
For Sulphur Dioxide, it’s 2000 and for PM10 particulates it’s 2004.
The Borough Local Plan, if accepted, will shift the target dates to 2032!
That’s 10 years from now, and 28 years after the original target date.
So, I have little faith that our Council will improve our air quality any time soon.
Maidenhead Great Park
So, given all that I have said about air pollution in the Royal Borough and Maidenhead in particular, it’s obvious to me that we really need the Maidenhead Great Park to help alleviate the health issues caused by air pollution.
Building on the Golf Course would be an act of stupendous environmental vandalism in a town which has poor air quality.
I call on our Councillors to think hard about the health impacts of air pollution on the people they purport to serve, to reject the Borough Local Plan and to make MGP happen.
We deserve better air quality and we deserve Maidenhead Great Park.
Ways to support our campaign:
- Contribute towards our campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/maidenhead-great-park
- Write to our MP Theresa May to say you oppose the development of the golf course (sharkeyj@parliament.uk)
- Write to your local councillors. You’ll find contact emails for your councillors here: https://maidenheadgreatpark.co.uk/ask-your-councillors-to-reject-the-blp
References & further reading
(2) RBWM has published the latest Annual Air Quality Stutus Report with 2020 AQ data with zero quantified analysis to prove “improvement”. https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/eh_air_quality_annual_report_2021.pdf
(3) Anyone interested to know more about the extent of the Maidenhead AQMA, the other 4 AQMA’s and all the monitoring site locations, might find Thomas’ public-access Google map useful: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1GucBP_wR7Cy2_m_JQfx8WtpFGXg&usp=sharing