Northampton Community Group to bring hundreds to council meeting for ‘toxic air’ protest.

The report from HouseFresh states that breathing the air in Northampton is equivalent to smoking 189 cigarettes a year, meaning that a baby born at Northampton’s Barratt Maternity Unit will have breathed the equivalent toxins to smoking its first cigarette within two days of birth.

The Umbrella Fair Organisation is calling on West Northamptonshire Council to clean up Northampton’s toxic air after 17 years of inaction on the declining air quality from successive councils. 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 their legal requirement to do so.

This will be the largest ever gathering of individuals at a full council meeting in West Northants and will start with a silent and peaceful protest as councillors arrive. The campaign group, 1000 Voices [2], state that their “call for immediate action” follows “17 years of inaction”, and that “any attempt by Northamptonshire residents to communicate with the council on this issue have been ignored”.

The group state that this will be a family-friendly event and ask everyone to attend, whatever their age.

To get involved, visit www.umbrellafair.org/1000voices and add your name to the list of attendees.

[1] HouseFresh report - https://housefresh.com/secondhand-smoke-world-map/

[2] 1000 Voices campaign - https://umbrellafair.org.uk/1000voices

About Umbrella Fair Organisation

In June this year Umbrella declared ourselves as a Climate Emergency Action Hub as a direct response to the ever increasing climate crisis. This re-setting of our focus followed a series of open meetings with our local community, rebalancing our commitments giving the environment equal status alongside our community work.

We have joined the Climate Emergency Centre network which focuses on local level responses to the climate crisis, the crisis is not just an environmental issue, it impacts all of us.

Umbrella has always understood the power of collective action and we seek to address the social and environmental injustice of the climate crisis through our everyday work and empowering our community to take action.

We continue to deliver our arts and wellbeing programmes and a range of community projects within this framework which all focus on sustainable solutions, including our Cycle Re-Cycle, Plant based Café and events programmes. We are best known for the Umbrella Fair Festival, the largest free festival in the UK and this will return in 2024.