On Clean Air Day the campaign group Clean Air Bradford have written to local councillors with wards on the route of the planned ‘Bradford Shipley Route Improvement Scheme’; asking them to back their calls to stop the road widening scheme that they say will worsen air pollution right outside a Primary School.

The letter states that the most significant negative effect of the scheme will be outside Shipley C of E school on Otley Road where the Council are planning on widening the road to accommodate more traffic. It goes on to say that Bradford Council’s own figures show that despite the road being widened; the average speed of vehicles will decrease, leading them to spend more time slowly travelling past the school. This is likely to lead to an increase in the level of NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) and other health-threatening pollutants, such as particulates from tyres and brake wear, being emitted into the playground and classrooms, as vehicles slowly snake past the school. 

Clean Air Bradford Co-coordinator James Craig says:

“Bradford Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority have to return to the drawing board about their plans to widen Canal Road. The most up-to-date research shows that air pollution affects all organs in the body, and that it impairs the developing brain and lungs of our children. It is therefore absurd to go ahead with a scheme that will increase the levels of traffic pollution outside a primary school. 

The Council likes to pride itself on being a Child-Friendly City. On Clean Air Day we need local councillors to demand that Bradford Council put children’s health and wellbeing first and put a stop to their polluting and dangerous road widening plans.”