Air quality in the Elvet Triangle
The community group ‘Elvet Clean Air’ held a public meeting in January this year with the aims to:
- Introduce members of Elvet Clean Air to the local community
- Raise awareness of the high levels of air pollution in the area
- Generate conversation to explore solutions to the air pollution
Many ideas for actions to improve air quality in this area were suggested. These are given in the meeting reports below.
The meeting concluded:
“Residents gave the Elvet Clean Air group permission to proceed with this initiative and to hold another meeting in the future. Elvet Clean Air recognised the need to widen participation to include residents from adjoining streets e.g. Whinney Hill, Old and New Elvet. Residents felt overall that implementing eventual changes should be led by Durham County Council with the collaboration of Durham University. Major implications of the report: (i) Reduce the number of vehicles using Durham Streets. (2) Primacy should be given to pedestrians and cyclists, not vehicle drivers.”
Students resident in this area have recognised the problem. An article in ‘Palatinate’ on 4th May 2023 – “Choked Street”: students exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution – describes the problem in the Elvet area, and elsewhere in the City. In the article a representative of ‘Elvet Clean Air’ said: “We need to get the voice of the students to do two things: one, to tell them that there’s a problem here; and two, to ask them for suggestions for change because we have a broader vision than this.”
