Winchester City Council launches new Air Quality Action Plan at a picnic for Clean Air Champions
Children of St Bede’s Primary School in Winchester are leading the way with some innovative thinking about air quality. Fifteen children were treated to a special ‘Clean Air Picnic’ having submitted winning ideas to a Hampshire County Council school competition. The event at North Walls Recreation Ground on National Clean Air Day marked the launch of Winchester City Council’s new Air Quality Action Plan.
The children - from years 3, 4 and 6 – were joined by Cllr Jan Warwick Winchester City Council‘s Portfolio Holder for Environment. Cllr Warwick was shown some of the winning ideas, including posters detailing ideas to improve air quality and a thermometer graphic depicting an overheating world.
Cllr Warwick said,
The Council has an obligation to meet national air quality standards and we have worked with a wide range of stakeholder organisations over the past 18 months developing the Air Quality Action Plan and making a start on delivering key actions.
These pupils at St Bede’s, as Winchester residents of the future, have a vested interest in protecting our environment. Events like this show that we can be confident they are able to inspire, pester or cajole their families and the wider community to change habits and help reduce levels of harmful emissions in the air around us.
The Air Quality Action Plan for Winchester was approved by the Council’s Cabinet in April, and seeks to meet nationally set targets by 2020. The core measures range from the introduction of differentiated parking charges and restrictions on delivery vehicles to the development of planning guidance which requires developers to consider the impact on air quality of any proposed new schemes for the City Centre.
St. Bede’s Primary School Head teacher Sarah Duck said:
Improving air quality in Winchester is vitally important and will have a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of all of us. We have a section on our website, ‘Eco School’, dedicated to thinking about ways we can improve air quality where we live. We’re delighted that 95% of pupils at St. Bede walk to school regularly, a significant increase from 56% in 2003.