Bishops Back Clean Air Day

Every year, air pollution causes up to 36,000 deaths in the UK with the World Health Organisation and the UK Government recognising that air pollution is the largest environmental health risk we face today. 

And here in the Diocese of Salisbury, one of our parishes has the unwelcome title of England’s worst road pollution hotspot. 

Speaking in support of Clean Air Day, the UK's largest air pollution campaign, the Bishop of Salisbury the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, who is the Church of England’s lead on the Environment, said: 

“Because of the pandemic we are more focussed on where we live, appreciate the natural environment and the responsibility we have to care better for God’s earth. 

“We know the dangers. Let’s use the opportunities to Build Back Better for all, for our children and for God’s sake. “

The Diocese of Salisbury recently added a gold Eco Church award to the many silver and bronzes its Churches hold and Diocesan Synod members joined those from General Synod in committing to the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Led by Global Action Plan, Clean Air Day brings together communities, businesses, schools and the health sector to improve public understanding of air pollution and build awareness of how air pollution affects our health.

In summer, more than 20,000 vehicles a day pass through the pretty village Chideock in Dorset, flooding the air with toxic nitrogen dioxide, making that stretch of the A35 England’s worst road pollution hotspot according to Friends of the Earth.

Adding her support to the Clean Air Day campaign, the Bishop of Sherborne, the Rt Revd Karen Gorham, said: 

"The reliance on our vehicles for online deliveries as well as leisure travel is having an impact on our local communities and I am really pleased that places like Poole and Salisbury are paying attention to how we can encourage more cyclists and walking by creating safer and cleaner routes. 

"The difficulties with many of our rural communities such as Chideock and Melbury Abbas is that roads, changed little since Thomas Hardy’s day are now major transport routes, which creates significant problems requiring both local pressure which calls for creative and acceptable change as well as a national and local government."

A spokesperson for the Clean Air Day campaign said:

“Working in tandem with Walk to School Month during October, this time of year also will allow us to extend the campaign to new areas such as domestic burning and indoor air quality as well as continuing to build on our core campaign themes around leaving the car at home. 

"All messages will be shaped by the outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic and will look to build sensitively and constructively on how we have learned to work and live differently.”

For more information go to www.cleanairday.org.uk.