Tom Wigley, Windsor resident and member of the Maidenhead Great Park campaign group, explains why it’s vital to improve monitoring of dangerous air pollutants in our Borough, and to take effective action to tackle it – including protecting the green lung of the woodlands and greenspace at Maidenhead Golf Course.
The heatwave at the beginning of August again led to dangerous levels of ozone in nearby Hillingdon and Harlington, likely to have reached Windsor and Maidenhead. DEFRA issued three public Ozone alerts.
Ozone is a gas which is damaging to human health and can trigger inflammation of the lungs, eyes, nose and throat, as well as asthma attacks. Ozone also has adverse effects on the environment through damage to vegetation and crops.
Ozone is normally formed when other pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, react in sunlight. Ozone levels increase in polluted air on sunny days, leading to summertime ‘smog’.
There are five Air Quality Measurement Areas in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM), where air pollution is acknowledged as a problem.
Ozone is one of a number of air pollutants that the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is not currently monitoring, so we cannot analyse the levels here, but in nearby Hillingdon and Harlington, where ozone is measured, concentrations of this health damaging pollutant increased gradually over seven days of last week’s heatwave to reach levels which were twice the air quality guidance limit recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Pollution drifts, and Maidenhead and Windsor are both under Heathrow flight paths and close to major motorways, so it’s likely they were also affected by it.
Peak ozone levels recorded at both Harlington and Hillingdon exceeded the WHO Air Quality Guideline (AQG) every day for seven days.
Peak ozone levels recorded at Harlington exceeded the UK National Air Quality Objective (NAQO) on the 11 and 12 August) when concentrations of 122.12 µg/m3 and 137.37 µg/m3 were recorded.
Peak Ozone levels recorded at Hillingdon also exceeded the UK NAQO on the same dates when concentrations of 100.7 µg/m3 and 111.9 µg/m3 were recorded.
At Harlington, both the 4pm and 12pm ozone concentrations exceeded the WHO AQG on 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 August.
During the July heatwave, when the highest ever temperatures were recorded in Britain, dangerously high levels of air pollution were recorded in Windsor and Maidenhead.
Data from monitoring sites at Frascati Way and Aldebury Road in Maidenhead and Clarence Road in Windsor revealed that on Tuesday 19 July, Royal Borough air pollution monitoring sites recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide which exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) safe limits.
Our government and the Royal Borough recognise air pollution as a major health risk, ranking alongside cancer, heart disease and obesity. It shortens lives and damages quality of life.
One of our Council’s declared Corporate Plan objectives is to achieve National Air Quality Objectives in all five Air Quality Management Areas in the Borough, but there are ten different pollutants and the Borough currently only measures two of them. It is impossible for RBWM to achieve National Air Quality Objectives by 2025 because it doesn’t measure 90 per cent of pollutants which have National Air Quality Objectives.
One of a number of key aims in our Council’s Environment & Climate Strategy is to have cleaner air and to green our urban environment.
The strategy recognises the need to reduce air pollution to reduce inequality for those who are disproportionately impacted by pollution.
Yet our council’s Borough Local Plan commits to building 2,000 new homes on the publicly owned woodlands and greenspace of Maidenhead golf course. Thousands of mature trees are going to be cut down. Trees and vegetation help to improve air quality, so building on the golf course will remove this vital green lung for our community. This loss, combined with increased road traffic created by the cars of thousands more residents, as well as 10 years of major construction traffic, will make air pollution in Windsor and Maidenhead much worse than it is now.
It’s vital that our council properly monitors and takes effective action to tackle air pollution. In March, I started a petition asking RBWM to increase and improve its measurements of health damaging air pollutants.
To sign our air pollution petition, go to https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=2163&RPID=8125846&HPID=8125846 or sign a paper copy at the Filling Good Shop, 22 High Street, Maidenhead. The petition closes at midday on 8 September 2022.