Air pollution rises in Westbury after Bath CAZ begins

Lorries are being pushed to use the A350 rather than the A36

A town has seen a 12 to 14% increase in air pollution over the last few years, unofficial figures suggest.

The increase in Westbury is being partly blamed on Bath's clean air zone (CAZ) as it can push lorries to use the A350 rather than the A36.

The zone has worked for Bath, with the city's pollution levels dropping.

Westbury councillors want action rather than Bath being blamed. Wiltshire Council's leader said the county's infrastructure is not good enough.

With the A350 running right through the town's centre, the town has been an "air quality action zone" since 2006, Westbury Mayor Mike Sutton said.

In March 2021, Bath became the first city outside London to introduce a CAZ.

The pollution figure has come from the town council, which bought its own monitoring equipment.

"It's not just pollution - the noise, the disruption, the vibrations. Westbury is a very small market town," Mr Sutton said.

"It's underneath the white horse hill and the pollution does build up."

Councillor Mike Sutton said he wants Wiltshire Council to do more to help Westbury

Mr Sutton said he does not blame Bath though, and he believes Wiltshire Council should have done more.

"Bath have done what any local authority would do for their citizens," he said.

"We are very disappointed at Wiltshire that, apart from wringing their hands and blaming Bath for everything, they've done absolutely nothing for 17 years to help Westbury.

"It has had the highest increase in housebuilding over the last 10 years - that's added to the problems and nothing has been done."

Mr Sutton wants Wiltshire Council to sit down with the town council to find solutions.

Westbury itself cannot legally have a clean air zone

The leader of Wiltshire Council, Richard Clewer, said the county's infrastructure network "isn't good enough".

"The problem we've got is solutions," he said.

"The A36 is supposed to be the key north-south road. It's the road that's run by National Highways.

"This [the CAZ] has simply moved traffic to the A350 and has made things worse. Westbury doesn't have a bypass - there's a history of it being turned down.

"You can't run heavy good vehicles through the middle of a town centre, but that's what we've got in too many bits of Wiltshire because we've got small market towns."

Mr Sutton said "pollution builds up" in the town

Mr Clewer explained that places like Westbury cannot legally have a clean air zone itself because it would block traffic flowing.

"What we need is for councils to work together. We need the north south infrastructure group the government has been promising for ages," he added.

Deputy leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Sarah Warren, said that the council was "given a directive to improve air quality in Bath in the shortest possible time".

"We originally requested government funding to extend our monitoring network into neighbouring West Wiltshire but this was turned down," she added.

She said they have been working with Wiltshire Council to understand the traffic issues, but have not been aware of any monitoring infrastructure before or after the launch of CAZ to show it has made a difference.