”1000 Voices” clean air campaign vow to return to West Northants Council Chambers this November

The campaign, developed by the Umbrella Fair Organisation, aims to pressure West Northamptonshire Council to tackle Northampton’s poor air quality which is considered to be among the worst in the UK. The former County Council received notice of six Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) in Northampton in 2006 and has never formed an action plan to tackle the issue despite a legal requirement to do so.

A spokesperson for 1000 Voices said “The Council were made aware of Northampton’s toxic air two decades ago and have done nothing to address it. As a result, it has gotten much worse. Two people on average now die every week solely due to breathing the air in the town. How much longer do we need to wait for West Northants Council to take action? How many more lives need to be lost to something so easily preventable?”

The announcement to stage the protest comes after West Northamptonshire featured second in the list of local authorities with the highest Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from transport, according to a report from the Department for Transport released in October 2023. Leeds was the only place listed as having higher GHG emissions than West Northants, despite the local authority having a population almost half the size of the city.

1000 Voices said “It comes as no surprise that West Northants is edging its way up another negative list given the decision by the council to do nothing about this issue. It’s as though the lives of Northampton residents aren’t considered important, even when people are dying. People have had enough of being ignored, and that’s why they’ll be coming out on November 30th from 4pm at Northampton Guildhall in even bigger numbers than before.”

The group invite local residents to sign up to get involved with the campaign and state that the protest will be family-friendly and open to all.

Readers can show support at www.umbrellafair.org/1000voices