Council teams support Clean Air Day

Cheshire West and Chester Council is supporting this year’s Clean Air Day to highlight how we can all make a difference to air quality in the borough and help protect children’s health.

Clean Air Day organisers ask us all to do our bit to clean up the air around us as we approach the longest day of the year.  Held on Thursday, 17 June, this year’s theme is protecting children’s health.

The Council’s Road Safety team is encouraging parents and carers to reduce the number of vehicles outside schools by walking, cycling or scootering all or part of their journey.

Fewer cars around schools means cleaner air.  An animation promoting this message has been produced and can be viewed on the Council’s YouTube channel here.

If you do have to drive, park away from the school and avoid engine idling. The Council’s Breath of Fresh Air campaign explained how turning a vehicle’s engine off while stationary protects the health of people in their cars and on the pavement.  Find out more on the Council’s website.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: “Clean Air Day is the perfect opportunity to promote walking, cycling or scootering to school to cut down pollution at the school gates and also to make the school run safer for children.   It’s a great way to keep children active too and they arrive at school energised and keen to learn.

“We can all do our bit to make our difference to air quality in the borough – please think how you could use other methods of travel for all or part of your journey.  Also be aware of the effects engine idling has on your health, the health of people around you and the environment.  If you’re parked up, please switch your engine off.”

Clean Air Day is organised by the national charity, Global Action Plan. Their website has a wide range of resources and toolkits to help communities, schools and workplaces to improve air quality. (www.cleanairday.org.uk).

National road safety charity, Brake, will hold their annual ‘Kids Walk’ on Wednesday 16 June with thousands of children aged four to 11 years taking part in a short, supervised walk around their area to share important road safety messages.  The Council’s Road Safety team has helped schools in Whitby Heath, Farndon and Childer Thornton arrange walks to support the event.

The Council’s Low Emission Strategy to tackle air pollution in the borough includes the recently installed charging points for electric vehicles in car parks across the borough to encourage the use of low emission vehicles.  Drivers of electric vehicles are now able to recharge their cars using dual-socket fast GeniePoint chargers, installed and managed by ENGIE EV Solutions.

This supports the Council’s Climate Emergency agenda and its target for the borough to be carbon neutral by 2045.