Brighton & Hove City Council has totally ignored their own evidence of the bad impact on the health of Upper North Street and Montpelier Terrace residents from poor air quality from the 700 buses and 850 taxis diverted along these streets every day for up to 2 years. The Council itself has said that airborne pollution is a strong contributor to 170 early deaths every year in Brighton and Hove. They link these early deaths to heart disease, respiratory disease (such as asthma) and some cancers. Last year, the World Health Organization said "The burden of disease attributable to air pollution is now estimated to be on a par with other major global health risks such as unhealthy diets and tobacco smoking."

In fact, the impact on the residents of Upper North Street and Montpelier Terrace is even worse, because the Council has NEVER CONSULTED US on this dangerous diversion. The Council has provided NO SERVICES to us to mitigate the impact. Compare the Council's failures with the services available to assist people to improve their diet and to stop smoking. PLEASE KEEP SHARING THIS PETITION TO MAKE SURE THAT NO OTHER COUNCIL DOES THIS TO OTHER COMMUNITIES IN THE UK!

Why has the bad impact on our health from this diversion been ignored? Why has no automatic monitoring of air quality been set up? Why will it take over a year for any air quality results to be publicly available? What is going on in this Council? Who in the Council is responsible? 

Here is the background. Grant funding for the Western Road project was approved as early as 2020. The Council's Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee approved the project in July 2021. A year ago (18/01/2022), that same Committee considered a paper on 'Real Time Air Quality Monitoring Network' that would enable residents and visitors vulnerable to air pollution to plan their days when pollution levels are high.' The paper describes the automatic monitoring stations in the city that monitor for fine particles PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide, and plans for new ones to be installed across the city. 

When we were advised about the diversion of buses and taxis along Montpelier Terrace and Upper North Street in late November 2022, we requested copies of air quality reports on the impact of exposure of residents to poor air quality. NO REPORTS had been undertaken even though the project had been funded for at least 2 years by that time. We have repeatedly requested monitoring of air quality by means of an automatic monitoring station like those installed elsewhere in the city. 

Again the Council says there is to be NO AIR QUALITY AUTOMATIC MONITORING STATION for the residents of Montpelier Terrace and Upper North Street, only NO2 diffusion tubes, as shown in the photograph at the top of Regent Hill, to "assess compliance with air quality limits". These were installed last week after we reminded the Council of their promise to install them at the beginning of the week. When and how will we be informed of the results? The Council "will need some time to collect and analyse data...Results are reported in the annual air quality status reports the following year (scheduled for July)..." Unfortunately, the Council is not joking.