GPs across Portsmouth back Pompey Street Space campaign to improve health

Various GPs and consultants have put their names to an open letter to Portsmouth City Council backing the Pompey Street Space campaign.

The campaign, which is also backed by other groups in the city, is asking for safe cycling and walking routes through the city, cycle storage and better public transport links while traffic levels have dropped during lockdown.

Dr Andy Whittamore, GP at the Portsdown Group Practice and the clinical lead for the Asthma UK-BLF Partnership, explained why he was backing the campaign. He said: 'This campaign is essential and calls for urgent action so that everyone living, working and growing up in Portsmouth can have better health.

'We know that people in Portsmouth have poorer health and especially lung health compared to other areas. Important reasons for this include exposure to air pollution and not doing enough activity.

'Today, high levels of invisible pollution from traffic in Portsmouth is causing people with lung disease such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to get more symptoms such as coughing, wheezing and breathlessness.

'Air pollution means that people with asthma and COPD need more medicines to control their symptoms and are more likely to have flare-ups and end up in hospital.'

SEE ALSO: Portsmouth sees highest drop in NO2 in England since lockdown

The city council has recently been awarded £214,000 by the government to implement some temporary changes in the city including pop-up bike lanes and road closures.

Dr Jonathan Lake from the Sunnyside Medical Centre in Southsea added: 'I would love our city to be ambitious here, I think it's such a great chance to be ambitious.

'The main thing we are asking for is a safe route for cyclists and pedestrians. We have routes at the moment but when there's traffic people don't feel safe. It's a genuine opportunity to use the bike or walk instead.'

Last month an open letter from the campaign signed by 69 city residents and figureheads including MP Stephen Morgan was sent to the city council.

A petition created by Pompey Street Space has now garnered almost 3,000 signatures and is due to be discussed at a future council meeting.

An open letter from Portsmouth health professionals to city councillors

As local health professionals, we are calling for Portsmouth City Council to take urgent action to help local residents travel and shop safely as lockdown is lifted. Estimates suggest that breathing Portsmouth’s polluted air contributes to the death of over 120 people each year. Right now, we have a chance to change that

A recent British Lung Foundation survey of 14,000 people with lung conditions found that:

- one in six had noticed improvements in their health during lockdown.

- among children, the figure was higher, with one in five parents saying their child’s condition had been alleviated.

Lockdown has led to traffic falling to levels last seen in 1955 while both fine particle and NO2 pollution fell by up to half in polluted cities like Portsmouth. The British Lung Foundation survey found that more than 50 per cent of people with lung conditions said they had noticed a decrease in air pollution since the start of lockdown.

A YouGov poll commissioned by the Clean Air Fund shows at least two-thirds of supported stricter regulation to tackle air pollution. A survey for Global Action Plan found that:

- six out of ten parents are worried about increased levels of traffic when lockdown is lifted, with over half (53 per cent) planning to walk or cycle more than they did before after lockdown.

- the vast majority of those that plan to be more active (79 per cent) say that restricting vehicle access at certain times of the day would be helpful.

Cities along the south coast such as Plymouth, Brighton and Southampton have already made changes to their transport infrastructure using low cost ‘pop up’ measures to encourage cycling and walking rather than driving as lockdown lifts. These measures will also help social distancing as we learn to live with coronavirus.

Now we have an opportunity to make a historic change in how people move around our own city of Portsmouth. This is a critical window of opportunity and demands strategic, decisive and brave leadership from Portsmouth City Council.

We are asking for Portsmouth City Council to be ambitious for the health of people in Portsmouth and promote active travel in our city by rapidly implementing:

- safe and well-designed pedestrian and cycle routes across Portsmouth

- cycle storage solutions across the city that help people travel to their work and leisure activities

- routes that link with public transport into the city to form a strategic transport network not based around cars.

This is an historic opportunity for Portsmouth city councillors to make changes that will improve the health of our city for generations to come. We urge them to seize this moment for all of us.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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