TWO streets are exceeding the legal limit for harmful pollution according to a report that has revealed the city’s most poisoned areas.
The Butts tops the list of Worcester’s contaminated streets with the historic city centre thoroughfare regularly home to long traffic queues and congestion.
The report, which details pollution levels at more than 30 locations across the city, shows that receptors placed outside Magdala Court in The Butts registered an average of 43.9 micrograms per cubic metre of pollution in the air in 2022 – higher than the legal limit of 40.
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Another receptor placed at the junction of Astwood Road and Rainbow Hill in Worcester also showed a worrying average – with its reading not far behind at 41.5 micrograms per cubic metre of air last year, meaning both are displaying illegal limits of pollution.
The top ten worst polluted locations in 2022 were:
- Magdala Court, The Butts
- Astwood Road/Rainbow Hill
- Bridge Street
- Foregate Street
- The Tything
- Upper Tything
- George Street
- Foreagte Street/Shaw Street
- Lowesmoor
- All Saint's Road
Both locations registered higher readings in single months throughout the year with neither managing to clock below 40 in more than half of the months in 2022 – and only falling below 38 micrograms per cubic metre of air in The Butts in just one month last year.
The remaining top ten worst polluted areas in Worcester, excluding The Butts and Astwood Road, all registered average readings of 35 micrograms per cubic metre of air or higher – with many dangerously close to exceeding the legal 40 limit.
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The other locations to make the top ten worst include two in The Tything, Upper Tything, Bridge Street, Foregate Street, George Street, Lowesmoor and All Saint’s Road.
According to the report by Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), Bridge Street had an average reading of 39.1 micrograms per cubic metre of air in 2022 with Foregate Street and The Tything both at 38.8 and Upper Tything at 38.7 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
The city’s George Street had a reading of 38.3, the heavily congested junction of Foregate Street and Shaw Street – which leads on from the city’s worst spot The Butts – registered an average of 37.6 in 2022.
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The average reading for Lowesmoor was 36.2 and the yearly average for All Saint’s Road, which leads onto the busy Deansway, was 35.9 micrograms per cubic metre of air last year.
The entire city was classified as an ‘air quality management area’ in 2019 because of worrying levels of pollution.
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The report said all but one of the more than 30 receptors across the city saw readings increase from 2021 to 2022 – although admits the previous year, which was still affected by Covid-19, was not a ‘standard one’ and unfair for comparison.
WRS said readings across the city were, on average, nearly a fifth lower in 2022 than they were in 2018 – the last non-Covid year.
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