Lancashire town is not 'most polluted' anymore due to new bypass

A Lancashire town is no longer the most polluted since the construction of a new road link. Air quality in the area has improved to such an extent since the opening of the town’s bypass almost five years ago that it has been removed from a list of the most polluted places in South Ribble.

Penwortham town centre was designated as one of four air quality management areas (AQMA) in the borough back in 2005. The unwanted status was conferred on a zone centred around Liverpool Road, because the location had previously exceeded maximum recommended levels of nitrogen dioxide.

Traffic on the route was regularly at a crawl prior to the arrival of the £17.5m bypass – now known as John Horrocks Way – which carried its first vehicles in December 2019. Liverpool Road, which previously served as the main drag into Preston from the south west, was notorious for its morning rush-hour tailbacks heading towards the city – and remained busy throughout the day.

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However, figures show that nitrogen dioxide levels have almost halved at some monitoring stations in the town centre over the past five years. A report presented to a meeting of South Ribble Borough Council’s cabinet reveals that the government Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) last year approved a request from the local authority to revoke the AQMA for the location.

Results from one of the Liverpool Road monitoring stations shows levels did rise again slightly between 2022 and 2023, but they have continued to fall at the others. Meanwhile, another test area at Broad Oak Drive fell more modestly over the period from 2019 to 2023 and is now the area with the highest nitrogen dioxide levels in Penwortham.

In 2021, Lancashire County Council published data showing that traffic along Liverpool Road had fallen by two thirds since the bypass opened. The route is now also home to cycle “superhighway”, designed to encourage more bike-riding along the quietened road.

Elsewhere in South Ribble, the three other AQMAs introduced in 2005 – along Victoria Road in Walton-le-Dale, Station Road in Bamber Bridge and Watkin Lane, Brownedge Road and Leyland Road in Lostock Hall – have also shown falls in nitrogen dioxide pollution since 2019.

The same is also true of what was then a fifth AQMA when it was established in 2017 on Turpin Green Lane and Golden Hill in Leyland – but the falls in those locations have been more shallow and, in some cases, have started to track back upwards since 2022. Nevertheless, cabinet member for environment and streetscene Kath Unsworth told the meeting that all the AQMAs were “significantly below national targets”.

“In due course, we’re hoping that all the air quality management areas can be revoked, as long as the expected trend continues. All of them coincide with areas of high traffic flow and traffic lights and roundabouts – and I’m sure that they’re no surprise to anybody to see which areas they are,” Cllr Unsworth added.

A new air quality strategy for South Ribble will be debated by councillors later this month. Lancashire County Council recently unveiled plans to reduce rat-running through Lostock Hall by upgrading the A582 and making it a more appealing – and less congested – option for motorists.

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