Lead Councillor asks you to ‘switch off car engine when idling’ to help improve air quality

The deputy leader of Wrexham Council is calling on motorists to “switch off their car engines when idling” to help improve air quality and reduce emissions.

In September members of Wrexham Council unanimously agreed to declare a climate and ecological emergency and promised to continue investing in renewable sources and reducing its carbon footprint.

Now as part of its decarbonisation plan, the local authority says it is looking at ways to help reduce air pollution in Wrexham.

One suggestion is if you are going to be stationary in your vehicle for 60 seconds or longer, to switch your car engine and restart it when you’re ready to leave. The local authority describe this as a “small, simple step to improving air quality in Wrexham.”

Wrexham Council appear knowledgeable on the topic of idling, giving examples of how idling often happens at level crossings (waiting for trains to pass), outside schools, outside supermarkets and in residential areas, noting “Being aware of when we’re doing it is the starting point to cutting it out”.

Cllr David A Bithell, lead member for environment and transport, said: “We’re looking at how we can improve air quality and reduce emissions, and a change we can all make is switching off our car engines when we’re idling.

“It can be easy for people to leave their engines running if they’re only stopping somewhere for a short period of time, but this means unnecessary and harmful emissions going into our environment. Now, more than ever, this is the type of thing we need to cut out to make a better, greener Wrexham.”

The Defra clean air strategy 2019 showed that over 30,000 deaths a year nationally are linked to air pollution, and children are suffering life-long health problems from poor air quality.

Cllr Bithell added: “We’re currently developing our decarbonisation action plan and we’re happy for residents to raise issues on things where we could do better. This costs no money at all, but in the long term has real benefits.

“It shows they’re on-board with what we’re trying to do and we’re all pulling in the same direction.”

A Welsh Government scheme (commonly wrongly attributed to Wrexham Council) to help reduce “harmful emissions” in the area is currently in place on a stretch of the A483 carriageway.

Last year the The Welsh Government introduced 50mph speed reductions on five 70mph stretches of road in Wales where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions were found to be above the legal limit as set out by an EU directive.

Average speed cameras have also been installed between the Gresford and B&Q Roundabouts in a bid to enforce the 50mph speed limit, they became operational for monitoring last month.

Earlier this month Wrexham.com reported that a Welsh Government report had revealed that the average speed cameras had seen a reduction in NO2 emissions

Reports released by the Welsh Government in September, said: “…initial indications are positive that the NO2 concentrations have reduced at the five sites from December 2017 to July 2019.

“Speed profiles demonstrate that mean speeds are above 50mph for all five sites. However, it is expected that with the Average Speed Cameras now in place at four of the sites, compliance will be improved with the 50mph speed limits.”

There are no plans to remove the measures in place, with the report noting: “Until additional information is obtained and the trends remain positive, it is too early to make firm conclusions or any other recommendations to remove the measures that have been either implemented or proposed at the five sites.”

Concentrations of NO2 at the roadside at each of the five sites have been recorded via a series of triplicate diffusion tube since mid-December 2017 and the data has been used to help establish the effect that the measures have had on NO2 concentrations.