Maidenhead golf course provides a green lung for our town, with thousands of trees converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, and absorbing some of the fine particulate pollutants in our atmosphere.
Our local roads, motorways and Heathrow airport deliver lots of polluting emissions into our air, and the geography of the Thames Valley means that these pollutants sink down, especially in colder weather.
As a consequence, EU pollution levels are frequently breached in our town centre. With 2,600 new homes planned for the golf course, many more cars will be using our local roads. So as well as losing our green lung, there will be even more emissions in our town.
Fine particulate matter lodges in our lungs
Particulate matter consists of tiny particles that are so small they can lodge in the lungs, and can even pass into the bloodstream, damaging blood vessels and organs.
In a landmark case, air pollution was ruled as the cause of death of the nine-year-old girl Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah from Lewisham in South London in 2013.
According to a report in The Guardian, 16 December 20201, the coroner said ‘she was exposed to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM) pollution in excess of World Health Organisation guidelines, the principal source of which were traffic emissions.’
Coroner Phillip Barlow has today (21 April) called for national pollution limits to be reduced, explaining there is “no safe level of particulate matter” in the air2. He also called for more information about air pollution and its impact to be made available to the public.
Knowing how dangerous traffic emissions are, why aren’t our councils and government doing more to reduce them? The switch to electric vehicles will help, but that’s going to take many years, and it’s only part of the solution.
The value of greenspace
As well as absorbing fine particulate matter and methane in our atmosphere, the 132 acres of grass and woodlands on Maidenhead golf course provides the perfect opportunity for creating a new town centre park in the future. We could plant more trees, and the new park would be in easy walking or cycling reach of many Maidenhead residents, encouraging them to choose active travel rather than their cars.
But only by keeping it green will future generations have the opportunity to do this. If we are to have a sustainable future for our town, we must place the appropriate value on our local greenspace now.
References
- The Guardian, 16 December 2020 ‘Air pollution a cause in girl’s death, coroner rules in landmark case’ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/16/girls-death-contributed-to-by-air-pollution-coroner-rules-in-landmark-case
- BBC News online, 21 April 2021 ‘Air pollution: Coroner calls for law change after Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’ death’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56801794