THE town’s first Air Quality Symposium at the Masonic Hall in Winmarleigh Street organised by Trams for Warrington has been hailed a success.
Organised by Cllr Sharon Harris, Trams For Warrington and local councillor, the event was very well attended by almost 50 residents from all over Warrington.
Expert presentations were made by the children of St Philips Westbrook Primary School; Warrington Borough Cllr David Ellis (Climate Emergency Commission); Jim Harkins and Prof. Lesley Lewis (Trams For Warrington); Mums for Lungs; Cllr Leila Williams and Dr Binita Kane (Clean Air for Schools Warrington).
Warrington regularly comes in the top five towns for poor Air Quality and this has a major impact on the health and quality of life of our residents. People are highly dependent on cars which are a major source of toxic air pollution originating from Non-Exhaust Emissions (NEEs) i.e. tyres.
The event brought together all the major stakeholders and air quality experts.
Ian Buttress, former Director of Greater Manchester Transport Authority and Chair of Trams For Warrington said: “The aim was to share information and expertise with a view to understanding the problems and some potential solutions. A major problem is the current transport infrastructure which has much room for improvement and trams should be a major part of that improvement plan.
“The outcome of the event was a realisation that air quality is one of the most important issues affecting our residents, especially the vulnerable both young and old.”
It is anticipated that a further event will be arranged with a view to lobbying both local and national government to act.
If you would like to be involved in any future events or feel that you have a contribution to make to the discussion, please contact Cllr Sharon Harris on 07894 082 44′
1 Comment
Well-intentioned but unrealistic and unlikely to happen. Baby steps would suggest TPTB in the town should be capable of running a decent bus service first. A tram system would only scratch the surface on a couple of routes in a town of this size and would be very expensive and disruptive to build. There are better alternatives that should be considered first, but for some reason there’s a noisy tram lobby based around Warrington.
Of course, rolling Warrington into Manchester would speed the job up if trams were so important yet the local politicians don’t seem to fancy that idea very much.