TOXIC vehicle emissions in Farnham have escalated to the extent that Waverley Council is to extend its Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) over most of the town centre. Regular monitoring of nitrogen dioxide by the council has revealed that elevated levels of N02 are now occurring outside the area that it designated in 2005, making Farnham easily the most polluted town in Waverley. The fear of worsening such pollution was among the factors that led mother-of-three Jane Foxwell to launch a parents' and children's petition against the East Street redevelopment earlier this year. The health fears were taken up by councillor Roger Steel in Waverley's executive committee on Tuesday. "The levels we have are quite dangerous. It is a real contributory factor to children's asthma," he said. "We are having more and more development in Farnham. It is going to get worse." The gas is harmful to health, particularly for older people and those with respiratory difficulties such as asthma. It is also an important component of ground level ozone formation. A reddish-brown gas with a pungent and irritating odour, it reacts in the air with water vapour to form nitrous and nitric acid and then toxic organic nitrates. It also contributes to the production of acid rain that can harm trees, fish and animal life. The council is required to declare an AQMA and develop an action plan wherever air pollutants exceed the levels set by the government in accordance with European legislation. The area of concern previously declared involves two sections of The Borough, where narrow streets and tall buildings have exacerbated the problem. But now the boundaries are to be redrawn to take in the entire area within the one-way system of South Street, Union Road, Downing Street and the Borough, plus West Street as far as the post office, the lower end of Castle Street, Woolmead and Woolmead Road and the full length of East Street as far as the Guildford Road junction. Only two small areas elsewhere in Waverley are subject to AQMAs - at Hindhead crossroads and in Godalming. NO2 levels in Farnham are monitored by the council using an automatic monitoring station (located at the junction of East Street and Bear Lane) and 12 diffusion tubes (located across the town). Average annual levels of NO2 must not exceed an 40 µg/m3. The automatic monitoring station, which gives the most accurate figures, indicated an average level for three months from March 20 to June 21 that was coming very close - at 37.9µg/ m3. In drawing the new boundaries of the AQMA to outside the area where limits have been exceeded, the council is taking account of the fact that air pollution is not static and can be affected by meteorological variations. Waverley's environmental health manager Victoria Buckroyd told the executive that although the council is required to monitor the situation and put together an action plan, working with Surrey County Council, it does not have to solve the problem, only to consider it. The situation will add fuel to the arguments of anti- East Street campaigners, with four-and-a-half years of traffic chaos predicted during the construction period. It has also been claimed that not only will the development bring more traffic, but a shortage of parking will lead to cars trawling the town slowly, spewing out poisonous exhaust fumes, in the search for spaces. Waverley officers, however, take a different view and the executive was told that the East Street scheme would have a positive impact on the pollution problem. Farnham Town Council's Vision for Farnham project and Urban Safety Management project were seen by officers as the potentially most effective route for pursuing traffic reductions in the town centre and the area designated as an AQMA. The officers' report to the executive commented: "The proposed East Street regeneration scheme has been seen as a positive step by the above projects because it can form the first phase in providing 'interceptor' car parks on the periphery of the town. "Also, it provides scope for any accompanying sustainable travel measures and junction redesigns to help mitigate air quality issues within Farnham." Councillor Pat Frost pointed out that putting pressure on Surrey County Council for a Wrecclesham Relief Road and Hickley's Corner improvements would also help the situation.
