Air Quality Management Area Action Plan

There seems a bitter irony in that on the day Mid Sussex District Council published their action plan to deal with the air pollution at Stonepound Crossroads the traffic was the worst it has been for sometime.  The following pictures were taken at 17:05 and got worse later.  Southbound traffic was queuing back for over 1km, as far as the Friars Oak and the golf course. 

It is not practical to reproduce the report here but you can read it by following this link

AQMA Report

and then clicking the pdf called "Report".  A summary appears at pages 29-33 and the full report follows on pages 34-71.

Amazingly the main direct action points are limited to:

1. Re-assess traffic light sequencing;
2. Minimising HGV movements;
3. ‘Cut Engine, Cut Pollution’ signs.

and indirect action points:
1. Travelwise schemes to promote sustainable transport, such as school travel plans, provision and promotion of cycle routes;
2. Education and raising awareness in order to incentivise people to change their travel behaviour;
3. Enforcement and other transport related schemes, such as consideration of vehicle emission testing;
4. Planning policy - policies in the new District Plan for mitigating the impact of new developments on traffic congestion and air quality; and
5. Further air quality monitoring.

There does not appear to be any recognition of the increased traffic due to the Sainsburys Local which is to be constructed or the development in College Lane.  And yet astonishingly the plan predicts these actions will bring the Nitrogen dioxide within WHO recommendations by 2018.  It is heartening that they recognise the need for planning policy to be focused in this issue.