New campaign video for Maldon Clean Air Route sees local pupils and residents support scheme

By Chloe Brewster 16th Jan 2025

The new video features clips from throughout the campaign, including this one of All Saints Pupils holding Clean Air Route signage. (Credit: Maldon Clean Air Route)
The new video features clips from throughout the campaign, including this one of All Saints Pupils holding Clean Air Route signage. (Credit: Maldon Clean Air Route)

A new two-minute campaign video by Maldon Clean Air Route features a number of local residents and schoolchildren, as they discuss the importance of improving air quality on Market Hill.

The video features pupils and a teacher from All Saints CofE Primary School, as well as business owner Gillian Crawford of Mighty Oak Taproom, local climate activist Laura Fulcher of Heybridge and Maldon Climate Action Partnership, and resident Libby Watson.

The Clean Air Route is a community campaign supported by Maldon District Council, and was first established towards the end of July 2024. It is a voluntary scheme hoping to direct traffic wishing to access the town centre away from Market Hill and towards the bypass instead.

The campaign hopes to lower air pollution levels on Market Hill, with two areas of the hill exceeding the annual mean nitrogen dioxide levels. 

In the video Megan Martinez, Eco Team Lead at All Saints CofE Primary School, discussed the lessons the school has been doing about air pollution. 

One pupil, Sonny Evans said; " Air pollution is particularly bad for children because our lungs are still growing.

"When we breathe bad air it can affect our health and affect our concentration in class.

"I'd like to breathe clean air when I'm walking to school, especially when I'm walking up Market Hill."

The campaign has sent out letters to Maldon businesses, encouraging them to display the Clean Air Route posters and to ask staff, customers and suppliers to use the recommended route change.

They say if just one in four drivers avoided the route, it would help to bring down emissions to within national limits. 

Gillian Crawford, of the Mighty Oak Tap Room, said: "Maldon has so much to offer visitors and residents. It has the most beautiful High Street, and has a lot of independent shops and businesses.

A frame from the video of Gillian Crawford discussing the benefits of the route to the High Street. (Credit: Maldon Clean Air Route)

"I think the Clean Air Route, with more people using the bypass and avoiding the High Street altogether, will make our part of the High Street a much more pleasant place to be.

"We hope that other Maldon businesses will join us in supporting the Clean Air Route for Maldon, and will encourage their staff, suppliers and delivery drivers to avoid Market Hill and use the bypass instead."

Some residents have hit back at the scheme, arguing the re-route would just move the pollution elsewhere.

However, a spokesperson for the Clean Air Route told Nub News these higher than recommended pollution levels on Market Hill are a direct result of the slow-moving traffic on the hill, as well as the narrowness of the road and the proximity of the buildings to one another.

Signs have popped up in Town Centre Car Parks and windows of businesses. (Credit: Maldon Clean Air Route)

The council are currently in talks with Essex County Council to add more signage around Market Hill encouraging the Clean Air Route.

The campaign is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

If you are interested in learning more, or getting your own free 'Clean Air Route' resources, you can contact: [email protected]/uk

     

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