Healthy Air Cymru has welcomed the Welsh Government’s Clean Air Plan for Wales, which was published today (Thursday 6 August).

The coalition of health and environmental organisations called the plan ‘a huge step forward’ but urged the Welsh Government to do more for local communities to ensure they have the help they need.

“This plan represents a huge step forward in our fight to clean up our air and create a healthier Wales for everyone”

Joseph Carter, Chair of Healthy Air Cymru and Head of Devolved Nations for Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said:

“Through our work as key stakeholders, with other partners, it’s been refreshing to see so many of our ideas and suggestions readily taken onboard and incorporated into the plan. 

“We are really enthusiastic to see future planned implementation of 20mph limits set to be the standard in most urban settings in Wales. Such a bold and ambitious aim will help kickstart the major shift we need to not only reduce the levels of air pollution but also encourage healthier and more active lifestyles by making it safer for people to walk and cycle.

“We want to see the Welsh Government build on these proposals and go further in helping support communities. We can achieve this by championing liveable neighbourhoods through street closures around our schools and by promoting alternative transport, such extending existing bike-to-work schemes and widening pavements for pedestrians and wheelchair users, to reduce the level of pollution where we live. 

“When extending these schemes, we need to ensure that they are accessible to everyone and take into account the new normal in which we are living. For too long many of these schemes have not been available to our most crucial and critical workers. If we want to see the huge increase in active travel needed to clean up our air in our urban streets, then everyone needs to have access to schemes and improve infrastructure so that alternatives to the car are much more viable. 

“The Welsh Government’s ambitious aims and objectives; to deliver a cleaner, greener and healthier Wales, and to reduce PM_2.5 and NO2 levels to below World Health Organization limits is central to our fight to deliver a transformative Clean Air Act for Wales – one that cuts across party lines and ensures we are working together so we can all breathe cleaner air from healthier lungs.  

“The plan intends to do this through active monitoring and evidence gathering, something we want to see greatly expanded as the plan develops. This needs to be backed up by greater investment and research so we can ensure we get the best outcomes for communities across Wales.”

Haf Elgar, Vice-chair of Healthy Air Cymruand Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, added:

“We welcome this comprehensive and ambitious plan but if it is to deliver the changes we want to see, action is needed from all public bodies and sectors of the economy, and, indeed from all of us, to make it happen, so that everyone in Wales can breathe clean air.

“We welcome this comprehensive and ambitious plan but if it is to deliver the changes we want to see, action is needed from all public bodies and sectors of the economy, and, indeed from all of us, to make it happen, so that everyone in Wales can breathe clean air.

“The plan will only succeed if there is sufficient investment, behaviour change and crucially a Clean Air Act as soon as possible.

We have seen recently that change can happen quickly, and developments to enable people to safely walk and cycle are great to see. We need to move away from using the car and enable people in every area of Wales to have access to public transport as well as cycling and walking – for the sake of clean air and the climate emergency.”