Funding granted for air quality improvements

The government has given Fareham Borough Council £500,000 to help improve the area’s air quality and specifically the stretch of road from the A27 near the Delme roundabout, down to the Quay Street roundabout, part of Gosport Road and along the A27 to the Station roundabout.

The grant, awarded by the Joint Air Quality Unit, will go towards the council’s new air quality working group, which includes councillors, experts, and representatives from local partners, to ensure levels of nitrogen dioxide fall within legal limits.

Leader of Fareham Borough Council, Councillor Seán Woodward, said: ‘Improving the borough’s air quality is one of our key priorities as we know how important clean air is to health and wellbeing.

‘This funding award will allow us, along with our partners at DEFRA and the Department for Transport, to implement our strategy towards a cleaner, brighter future.’

A government report highlighted a major contributing factor is around 30,000 vehicles travelling in and out of the Gosport peninsula each day.

Norman Pasley, from Fareham and Gosport Friends of the Earth, welcomed the funding.

He said: ‘Anything we can do to improve our air quality is worthwhile and the government initiative is excellent.

‘It is obviously a difficult problem to solve and encouraging people to use public transport and think about how close they live to work is a start.’