Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay spent Tuesday 4th April in Bungay, where concerns have been raised about the high level of air pollution.
Local Green Party candidates for East Suffolk District Council, Toby Hammond and Anthony Speca, brought Adrian Ramsay to one of the main streets, where they carried out an air quality spot test.
Teacher and Green Party candidate Anthony Speca says: "One of the issues we’ve been highlighting is the problem of air pollution in Bungay. It’s connected with the heavy traffic in our town, including HGV traffic. Today we’ve been trying out an air-quality monitor in St Mary’s Street and Lower Olland Street, after residents there complained about pollution.”
Every year, tens of thousands of people in the UK are killed by air pollution. Data from https://addresspolution.org shows significant air pollution in Bungay. For instance, at the busy junction of Lower Olland Street and Wharton Street, the levels of polluting nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 and PM10 significantly exceeded WHO limits.
These pollutants are tied to health problems like cancer, bronchitis and reduced lung development.
Air pollution is also an issue for the Green Party nationally. In May 2022, Green Baroness Jenny Jones introduced the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill - also known as Ella’s Law - to Parliament.
The law was named after Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi-Debrah, who was the first person in England to have air pollution stated as a cause of death by a coroner after she died aged nine on 15 February 2013.
The new law would force the government to bring the air quality in every community up to minimum World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who helped carry out the test in Bungay, says: “The right to breathe clean air should be a basic human right. Today I have heard from Bungay residents who are worried about air quality, and especially about the pollution from large lorries cutting through the town and ignoring restrictions. It is simply not acceptable that our towns’ high streets should pose such a health risk, especially to our children.”
Adrian Ramsay is the Green Party’s Parliamentary candidate for the new Waveney Valley constituency on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, which includes Bungay and Halesworth.
