A COUNCILLOR has said Bradford needs to clean up its air, as he doesn’t want his grandchildren growing up with illnesses caused by pollution.

Councillor Taj Salam (Lab, Little Horton) was speaking during a discussion into air pollution in City Hall.

Defra has given Bradford Council a year to reduce air pollution in areas of the district after it emerged that some roads would not reach legal levels of nitrogen dioxide for nine years.

Some of the worst roads in the district are the A650 in Shipley, which will not reach legal levels until 2027, and Shipley Airedale Road in the city centre will not reach legal levels until 2024.

At a meeting of Bradford Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee last week, members were told the Council had been issued with a Ministerial Direction to come up with a more detailed plan of how to reduce air pollution.

The final plan will have to be delivered in just over a year, October 31, 2019.

Members were told that it was likely Defra would offer Bradford financial support to improve nitrogen dioxide levels, similar to how they had helped cities like Leeds.

The committee heard how air pollution was linked to around 200 deaths a year in Bradford, and those who suffered most from the effects were the very young and very old.

Sally Jones, pollution control officer, said: “We had done some work and found the levels weren’t coming down as much as we’d like them too, despite some good work.

“We had done all the easy measures to reduce emissions, but we were still not seeing the results we’d like.”

She said Defra would now held the Council work to reduce emissions at a much faster rate.

Councillor Joanne Dodds (Lab, Great Horton) said: “I know what it is like going running on roads in areas with lots of congestion. When I go running I can choose to avoid those roads, but parents walking their children to school can’t always chose to avoid certain roads.”

She was told that the work done to reduce pollution on the roads referred to by Defra would be rolled out to reduce pollution on other roads, including those nearest schools.

Cllr Salam pointed out that some of the most polluted roads were near or next to the cycle super highway – a cycle link between Bradford and Leeds built to encourage more people to cycle. He said: “We spent millions on this superhighway, but then we are asking people to cycle on a road while they are breathing all that pollution.”

He added: “We should be welcoming the involvement of Defra with open arms. If we can get this right on two or three roads, if we can improve the air quality there, then we can replicate that in other places.

“We need to improve all our roads, I don’t want my grandchildren growing up with health impairments from breathing in pollution.”