A FORMER Mayor of Farnham, Jeremy Ricketts, will table a motion at Farnham Town Council tonight (Thursday) calling on councillors to “take action” to solve Farnham’s air pollution problem.

In a letter to this week’s Herald, Mr Ricketts says the lack of urgency to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide in the town is a “disgrace” and, referencing the Grenfell Tower tragedy, calls for a “common sense” approach to the problem.

“Air pollution is destroying millions of lives and causing 40,000 early UK deaths every year,” he said. “Here we have no urgency, no public enquiry, no action. We have no say and cannot use common sense. It is a disgrace.”

Mr Ricketts, who has twice been refused planning permission for nine new homes at Knowle Farm in Old Park Lane, has also criticised the Farnham Neighbourhood Plan for allocating “94 per cent” of the town’s future housing “into the most air polluted part of our town”.

The ex-mayor’s letter coincides with a new report published by Greener Journeys, a campaign to encourage more sustainable transport, which concludes that the Government’s proposals to improve air quality will fail if action is not taken to reduce congestion and reduce number of diesel vehicles.

The report, released to mark Clean Air Day on June 15, can be read in full at www.greenerjourneys.com/.

Responding to the report, and ahead of Catch the Bus Week (July 4 to 10), bus operator Stagecoach has also called on local authorities such as Surrey County Council to do more to reduce traffic congestion.

Stagecoach recently introduced contactless payment technology across its fleet in Surrey and Hampshire to encourage more people to use public transport. However, the operator says the biggest challenge to bus services in Surrey is the “growing problem” of traffic congestion.

Statistics by Greener Journeys show that average traffic speeds have fallen to below 10mph in Britain’s busiest towns and cities, significantly impacting bus travel with journey times currently increasing by 10 per cent per decade.

Edward Hodgson, managing director at Stagecoach South, said: “The introduction of contactless is yet another demonstration of the practical improvements bus operators are making for passengers.

“However, the delivery of high-quality bus services is a shared responsibility. While we are investing in the parts of the service that we control, we need local authorities and our politicians to play their part and tackle the single biggest issue facing bus passengers - traffic congestion.

“Congestion on our roads slows down journeys, pushes up fares, reduces air quality and undermines the work of operators to deliver improvements and attract more people to bus travel.

“We need politicians to step up and tackle this growing problem now, to allow our local bus networks to flourish.”

A spokesman for Surrey Council confirmed the issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the Waverley Local Committee at Haslemere Hall on Friday, June 23.

The meeting of Farnham Town Council, in which Mr Ricketts’ motion will be debated, will commence at 7pm this evening (Thursday) at the council chamber in South Street.