Spot fines for ‘polluting drivers’
Wednesday 18th March 2009, 3:47PM GMT.
Motorists in Shrewsbury who sit idle in their cars with their engines running could soon be hit with £60 fines under new plans to improve air quality in the town.
Environmental health chiefs at Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council are proposing the idea as part of a raft of measures under the authority’s Air Quality Management Areas, which include the town centre, Heathgates island and the village of Bayston Hill.
David Spode, manager of pollution at the council, said staff could be granted powers to issue fixed penalty notices to motorists who were found to be unnecessarily creating more carbon emissions.
He said: “It would not be used in a draconian way and we would try to encourage people to turn their vehicles off on a voluntary basis.
“Already there are sign posts in some of the car parks, particularly for coach drivers, asking them to do that.
“It’s something that is available as a power to local authorities where there is a need and it’s something we will be particularly looking at in the future.
“It certainly wouldn’t be related to people queueing at lights but obviously if someone has pulled off the highway for some time with no intention of moving and still keeping their engine running, it’s something we could use to stop that happening.”
Mr Spode said motor vehicles were one of the biggest contributors to pollution and he said the council was determined to cut down the level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM10) in the area.
Other proposals for the future include creating another two gyratory systems at Bridge Street/St Austin’s Street and at St Julian’s Friars – taking the total number to four in the town.
The plans could also see further pedestrianisation of Shrewsbury town centre and identification, mapping and signing of recommended freight routes.
Mr Spode said data recorded from monitoring equipment close to the railway station in Shrewsbury last year showed that the national annual mean value of 40mg/m3 for NO2 was being well breached at Castle Gates and was also exceeded at Bayston Hill.
Members of the council’s overview committee will hear an air quality update tomorrow.
By Russell Roberts
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Don’t want the cars to pollute? Then get the buses to pull into the bus stops so that lorries, etc can get past; collect the refuse early in the morning not at rush hour when everyone is going to work; also ban the bicycles – they create traffic queues behind them because they ride in the centre of the road and against the traffic, flaunt the highway code and the traffic just backs up.
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Utter tosh! I think the Environmental Health Officers heads are full of air on this issue. It cannot be policed fairly unless a “jobsworth” gets involved, then anarchy will ensue.
10/10 for the idea but 0/10 for the practical enforcement.
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And why on earth have they put the pollution monitor by the train station? Surely thats going to be picking up the rubbish from the trains rather than the cars in town centre!
Well, it will give our wonderful MP Mr.K another soapbox to get on and another photo opportunity!
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sounds like a good plan, air is good in shropshire rural but poor in shrewsbury urban area especially the town cetnre because the roads right through it also why is this chap not objecting to the rubbish burner in harlescott then
????
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Why not just ban car’s from Shrewsbury completely? I can think of no good reason why anyone in Shrewsbury should use a car for going about day to day business when a perfectly good bus network, cycle lanes and a train station is in existence! How many other similar size population centre’s in Shropshire can say the same?
Bridgnorth – ditto to all three
Much Wenlock – ditto to all three
Highley – ditto to all three
Ironbridge – ditto to all three
Dawley, Donnington, Madeley, Trench etc need I go on.
If you live in Shrewsbury you should no longer require a car for your day to day business.
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SABC does not exist after April, what then?
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The occasional vehicle idling whilst stationary at the side of the road is outweighed many hundreds of times by the queues of idling vehicles caused by excessive, mostly unecessary use of traffic lights in Shrewsbury. Pathetic.
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Y Mab is correct – there’s plenty of smoky buses to get people into town.
But I feel that this is an opportunity for the council to start cutting staff and saving taxpayers’ money than dreaming up jobs to actually justify the current lot of EHOs, who seem to think that the correct place to monitor air quality is next to a rail/road interchange.
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just another stealth tax, what about taxis waiting and people just ‘turning the engine’ in winter to keep warm!
any way i drive a citroen c3 and it automatically stops the engine at red lights etc, so i dont care as im alright
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Are you suggesting that all those towns have good bus, cycle or train links? Certianly not so for Wenlock (has none) Bridgnorth no trains and difficult to cycle etc etc.
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What a load of old rubbish britain gets better and better another way of ripping people off.
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Y Mab Darogan “blah blah blah”
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Remove ”air quality” and replace it with ”revenue raiser”.
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Y Mab Darogan ..
I take it therefore, as you say:
If you live in Shrewsbury you should no longer require a car for your day to day business…
that:
Your line of business /employment doesn’t require you to visit several customers IN and around:
Shrewsbury/ bridgnorth/Much Wenlock/Highley/Ironbridge/Dawley/Trench Etc (to quote your own list)?
AND I also take it that your line of business doesn’t require you to carry aned move around heavy tools, test equipment, spare parts, new components etc? – like I and many others have to?
SO ..
If I live “in Shrewsbury” … or anywhere else for that matter…
I don’t need a Car??
Tell THAT to my customers !!!
You ARE having a laugh are you??
Finally – this WHOLE proposal is a disgrace. The motorist in Britain must now be the most persecuted, taxed, and discriminated against group ever – and it HAS TO STOP.
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Are these people real?
How to cut back on motorists pollution…
Remove on-street parking which hinders traffic flow and causes totally unnecessary congestion… rephase the town’s traffic lights so that they work in harmony… sort out the farcical situation of the lights at Mount Pleasant… Harlescott lights – oh sorry better not tackle that one – try timing them… Cross Street, try moving the lights up to where they should be rather than where they are historically placed (from when it was two way) and an extra four cars per change would get through unhindered. Oh, whilst we are at it remove the parking on Coton Hill by the “Pump House” and realign the white line so from Coton Hill you can get unhindered into the left hand lane to go down Cross Street. Shall we carry on…
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Newbie – there are 62 separate air quality monitoring sites throughout Shrewsbury. One of these is on the front of the Station Hotel, opposite the station. The other 61 are not.
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Is there now going to be an enforcement officer at every set of lights. This will cause congestion when writing out tickets or will they be issued via cctv footage.
If it happens here, it’ll hapen every where.
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Well, on the day it was also revealed in the news that traffic levels have risen 25% in the last 15 years, I’m so glad that Chris has such brilliant insight to solve the nation’s problems.
Let’s take all these people on buses and on bikes and stick them all into individual cars. I’m sure that the effect on traffic flow would be immediately obvious.
Has it also occured that these cyclists have a right to be on the road, whereas motorists have to be insured and licensed due to them driving a large metal thing that will generally come off the better when in impact with squishy people.
No, I am not condoning the actions of people flouting the laws by riding like idiots. I wish that more was done to crack down on this type of behaviour too. However, one has to accept that there are idiots in all walks of life, using all methods of transport. I could continue to list for pages the everyday impatience, and dangerous behaviour you can see every day by car drivers, but I’m sure you already are aware being a bastion of perfection yourself.
Yes, of course, more cars on the road are the answer.
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I wasn’t aware that it was illegal to have your engine running whilst stationary. Can they legally impose these fines if we are breaking no laws?
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clean air is so important, you should look at astmas rates for kids in areas with alot of traffic fumes and the cost this places on the NHS then you would not say silly things like people trying to tackle a genuine problem are looking at ‘revenue raising’ they are looking to save you money if only on the nhs inhaler bill
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Of course if your a tradesperson and live in Shrewsbury you require a car BUT if you live and work in Shrewsbury or even work in a office etc in Telford. Wolverhampton or Birmingham why do you need a car?
You can get to the shops in Shrewsbury via public transport and to work via the rail network.
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How about fining thses public sector buffoons every time vehicles are forced to a halt by the appalling traffic systems they impose on us.
Castle Gates has traffic lights deliberately phased to prevent vehicles moving – hence the problem.
Sort out the traffic systems and stop looking for stupid half baked schemes to impose further taxes on the motorist.
For my part I will ensure i rev the engine of my 4X4 whenever I am stopped outside the council offices – the fumes might stop them thinking up these ridiculous schemes.
Bring on the cull – 50% less staff would mean the survivors had a job to do!!
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Tom M.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that we should have more cars on the road (as per your last paragraph, in post 18)
But -the inescapable fact IS that car users pay a LOT OF MONEY to use the roads, and ….. let’s not fall into the trap of thinking of the car as some sort of leisure pursuit that can be dispensed with either.
The word “car” should be replaced by something more meaningful, that relates to how it is used by most, That is:
“as a neccessary form of transport for persons, goods, and the carrying out of ones business”.
As such – the car performs a valuable part of our economy -and it simply WON’T DO to keep bashing “the motorist” as “everyone else” seems to want to do.
I, like many others, simply COULD NOT run a business, keeping all my customers happy, without a car.
AND – what is also interesting to point out is that, in my line of business, which is internet provision, I am directly helping more and more people to work remotely over the internet, rather than travel to work (using a CAR of course !)
SO …..
Because of that -I find it doubly insulting to be threatened with “pollution” when I, and many like me are actually doing something real to prevent/reduce pollution.
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Y Mab Darogan
Can you enlighten us all as to what you do for a living, where you live and where you work? **
** Ref your post:
BUT if you live and work in Shrewsbury or even work in a office etc in Telford. Wolverhampton or Birmingham why do you need a car?
You can get to the shops in Shrewsbury via public transport and to work via the rail network.
Public transport is fine for those who only travel to one place of work, at regular hours, with little or no weight to carry.
Sadly – for the rest of us living in the real world …..
(and not the topsy turvy gold plated subsidised gold plated pension world of the public sector workers – who dream these schemes up..)
….. WE have to work ODD hours, weekends, nights, and WHEN the customer demands it – and you CANT REPEAT CANT do that using public transport! – End of !!
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In the real world some of us inhabit you need a car in order to manage all the various tasks required in one day, dropping kids at school before racing to office so as not to be late at work, picking up heavy shopping, getting said offspring to football practice etc etc etc.
It’s a reality in this day and age and whilst I would like to saunter along on a pedal cycle I would never get my child to school be sacked fom my job and never have enough food in the house…..
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Idontbelieveit – you could quite easily walk the childrent to school if you left early enough – I doubt any school in Shrewsbury is more than 5 miles away from your home.
Football practice – walk, cycle or use bus, heavy shopping fit a pillion to your bike to carry heavy shopping.
Regarding your comment
” I would never get my child to school be sacked fom my job and never have enough food in the house…..”
You could quite easily get your child to school and if you have children by employment law your employer needs to offer you flexible working hours as for shopping have you heard of Tesco or Asda online???
askeric dotcom – I’m employed as a cranberry silo watchman and live 10miles from my place of work – I cycle into work every day. 10 miles takes me approximately 40mins at a slow pace on my bike – benefits – you keep fit and do not pollute the air for everyone else.
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im glad someones doing something about this important issue
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Take a look at the hundreds of cars in the car-parks at Shirehall and then ask the question who the big polluters are.
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How ludicrous, if planners were really interested in preventing cars sitting idle, they would not create car parks with bottle necks. For example Meole Brace Retail park and the new Tescos, (which has other entrances/exits which are closed off)On busy days it can take ages to get out of these places. S.Squire
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does this apply to:
POLICE
ICE CREAM VANS
BUSES
TAXI’S
GENERATORS
Pathetic World… Remove some of the pointless traffic lights…this will save everyone some idle time!
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if it worked in practice i would support it because as a kid i had asthma which i blame on growing up in Aqueduct under the fall out of the Ironbridge power station mainly (though i accept i was genetically pre disposed) if anyone could imagine the pain and suffering i have gone through and countless other kids like me, the steroid injections, the daily hospital trips, the expense on inhalers, the often missed sports days, the worry for my parents, if you think for a moment just about things like this you cannot help but think that air quality is important, however i dont think this will work practically on the ground due to enforcement issues, i would rather they spent the money on grants for green vehicles and alternative fuels and electric vans which are zero emission, that would help people like me and other millions in the UK with respiratory ailments
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good fine them more, motoring is to cheap and its costing us billions in hidden social, environmental and health damage
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williams right the council need to practice what they preach and clean up their own fleet first
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If I hear anymore about C02 im going to explode. If people believe all this green nonsense (which is all nonsense), buses are far far worse. Why dont we just work all day and pay everything to the government as part of green taxes? Hold on we are all doing that. Quick! Ban people breathing as dont we all release C02?
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you said it all john, look at the buses they are ancient and covered in black soot
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Y Mab Darogan.
Sensible answer please to my earlier question reference employment …. can I remind this is a serious debate we are having here …
So ..
Define ” Cranberry Silo Watchman ” ??
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Key phrases in these comments:
Pathetic
Outraged
Ludicrous
Rip off Britain
Strong words for something that aims to improve the quality of life for every single Shrewsbury resident.
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make the most of your cars by 2060 they will be a thing of the past, unless electric or elastic band.
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askeric dotcom – I will indeed define cranberry silo watchman for you. It is a watchman who watches over a cranberry silo, I hope this defines it for you.
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big brother gone mad or what!
i’ll leave my engine running when i like and i’d go to court to defend my right to drive where ever i like
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Y Mab Darogan.
Your reply, I think sums it all up.
You are obviously not prepared to take this discussion seriously, and I therefore will disregard all previous and future posts from you.
If you google “cranberry silo watchman” – most of the results involve the Simpsons …
eg:
Grampa claims to have spent forty years as a night watchman at a cranberry silo.
However, I fear the simpsons may be a tad too intellectual for you.
I look forward to more sensible replies from other participants in this debate.
Regards
Askeric dotcom
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typical council just out for more of our money, they cant really claim to car about air quality as they are supporting a rubbish incinerator in harlescott for peat sake how toxic is that! also look at all their vehicles, the buses the bin wagons and everything, i know the SABC cheif executive used to drive a four by four too, what a joke, they dont care about our air
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I’m sure they’d ask you to turn off your engine 1st and fine you if you refused. It’s to encourage you to turn your engine. Anyone talking about turning them off at traffic lights is just exagerating. How long does it take to turn your engine off when you are parked anyway. Burn a calorie.
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never never never these lefty loons at the council need to be sacked, getting rich of my taxes the layabouts dream up hair brained schemes to suit their socialist EU masters, never not inshrewsbury, not in the UK, we like to drive, and you better get out my way or get run over, this is a free county, god bless the queen, we’ll not tolerate taxes from the council for driving
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im glad
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i think the pollution manager is out of date, modern petrol engines have very low emissions and hopefully more and more we will see them be zero emissions when at lights and low speeds etc because of the use of electric hydrid battery technology to assist the engine. The real problem here is deisel engines, and more and more we are seeing desisel engines in cars I appreciate, but the real problem is big deisel engines, so they should look at buses and HGV’s – i predict an HGV ban alone would solve Shrewsbury town centres air quality problems, what would be needed would be a massive out of town depot on the a5, the stuff (for the shops etc) can then be bought in daily on smaller lower emission trucks, they would find it easier to get down the medieval streets too and do less damage to our heritage, the other key thing is that the Council and public sector generally must lead by example and stop using deisel vehicles in their fleet where possible, get their vans onto petrol or green fuels, and buy the most modern buses and refuse collection vehicles, we also need to see something done about 4 x 4 ‘s in urban areas, they have engines on par with some buses and dont belong in the town centre, I would make town centre parking higher for 4 x 4s’ but park and ride cheaper for them too, that should help
So basically this engines off policy will do very little, only real improvements will come when the bus station is relocated and the Council buys new dust carts and vans
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just revenue raising, if they want to disprove that they should make it ‘cost neutral’ with reductions on bus fares, or hypothecate the funds for environmental projects
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Peter P makes some good points, but falls at the last hurdle with his 4×4 comments.
He doesn’t qualify his comments on these vehicles, so I can only assume that he means ALL 4×4 vehicles. Which means that drivers of Fiat Panda 4×4′s, Nissan Qashqai’s, all Audi’s that have the quattro system, Skoda Octavia Scouts, most Subarus etc. So drivers are punished according to the drivetrain layout of their cars, not necessarily their emissions?
I think Peter means 4×4′s of a certain size or wheelbase? But what about a Skoda Superb 1.9TDi? Great mpg, low emissions, but a huge wheelbase. OK. Move on. Just punish those who drive high emission vehicles then? But what if I drive a 1970 Mini Clubman 1275GT? Small, nimble, great use of space, and ideal for towns! But emissions are probably the equivalent of a high performance modern car!
I occasionally driver a classic car. It has a 1.8 engine, yet I struggle to get more than 20mpg out of it. “BAN IT” or “SCRAP IT” some people may say. But I’m re-cycling by driving it and keeping it on the road! By doing that, I’m not buying into buying a new weekend toy which has consumed natural resources.
I’m sure there is a solution to all this out there somewhere.
I’m just not sure where it is.
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