The south side of Bath is now a ‘Dirty Air Zone’ according to one resident.
Eleanor Swift, from Southdown, wrote into the Bath Chronicle newspaper to say that traffic avoiding the Clean Air Zone is making other areas of the city dirty.
Ms Swift said that one thing which could be done is to reactivate the speed camera on Whiteway Road.
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Locals have already spoken to Bath Live about how they are living in a daily nightmare with ‘horrendous’ levels of traffic on Whiteway Road with one couple unable to sell their house because of it.
Echoing the worry many other locals expressed Eleanor Swift said that reactivating the speed camera would at least stop the speeding.
Her letter reads in full: “We now have a dirty air zone in the south Joe Schofield quite rightly echoes loudly the sentiments of council tax payers in Whiteway, Twerton and Southdown.”
Joe Schofield, resident, wrote in the Bath Chronicle the week previous to say how bad the traffic had become.
Ms Swifts letter continues: “The diversion routes followed for vehicles of all sizes to avoid the CAZ and relative fees have created a DAZ (Dirty Air Zone) in full view of our elected councillors backed up by their like-minded colleagues!
“The south side of the city has become a DAZ, feeding rat runs – Southdown Road, The Hollow, Pennyquick and linking branch roads.
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She says: “After 16 years of calls to digitise a speed camera on Whiteway Road (via councillors) this was met with confusion as to ownership.
“In recent weeks (and after years of asking by residents) Cllr Romero has declared it is owned by Bath and North East Somerset.
“Whiteway Road is normally plagued with heavy-duty speeding traffic coming from a variety of directions 24/7. (It had been so for years.)
“That has at least doubled and added a cloud of pollution – a DAZ! Activation of this camera would resolve one illegal activity that threatens the safety of residents, speeding.
“The congestion is another matter!
“This is one example of the lack of regard for the basic needs of residents.
“The camera is still inoperable. Other than Joe Scofield, who cares about south side residents? Thank you, Joe.”
When concerns about traffic levels increasing on Whiteway Road were raised to council leader Kevin Guy before, he said he took the issue seriously.
He said that one possible explanation could be that there are more HGVs and vans using roads across the UK because of home deliveries and added it was not the council’s intention to make other roads more polluted.
He said: “We take seriously the concerns expressed about increased traffic on roads that are lying outside of the Bath Clean Air Zone (CAZ) boundary.
“A perception of more HGVs and vans using these roads could be because of the CAZ, but we need to remind people that nationally, there are now more HGVs and vans on our roads than ever before due to the increased use of home deliveries.
“It is not our intention to make surrounding roads more dangerous or polluted.
“Monitoring is being completed as quickly as possible to understand the cause for any change in traffic levels, the results of which will be made public in September 2021.”
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