WAVERLEY Borough Council has welcomed the Government’s announcement of more funding to tackle the UK’s chronic air pollution problem.

Air Quality Management Areas were declared in Farnham and Godalming in 2008 after levels of the hazardous pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were found to be breaching safe levels in the two towns.

The council’s latest air quality monitoring report, released in May, revealed levels of NO2 still exceed the national objective in Waverley’s two largest settlements.

Responding, Waverley’s executive member for the environment, James Edwards, called for more “co-ordinated action” to improve air quality.

The Haslemere councillor seemingly got his wish , when the Government unveiled a £255million fund to help councils tackle emissions from diesel vehicles, as part of a £3billion package of spending on air quality.

A council spokesman told the Herald: “Waverley Borough Council has made a commitment to establish an air quality steering group to bring together the council, county council, other agencies and interested parties to focus on priority areas for action to improve air quality in the borough.

“The council welcomes this announcement for funding to help achieve improvements.

“We will certainly be pressing for some of that funding to be allocated to solving the recognised problems in Farnham and Godalming where we have declared air quality management areas.”