An air pollution campaigner from Burngreave said carbon emissions are “destroying our world” and has encouraged residents to participate in the South Yorkshire Mayor’s bus consultation.
Graham Jones of the Burngreave Clean Air Campaign conducts his own tests of the air quality around Burngreave, and the latest readings from January-August 2024 found the majority of levels were above the legal maximum.
Mr Jones blamed the pollution problem on the high level of cars that travel down Spital Hill and Burngreave Road, due to its proximity to Northern General Hospital and the closing of alternate routes.
He said: “Improving our buses is not only a social imperative, it is necessary to reduce car use and thereby reduce carbon emissions that are destroying our world before our eyes and also the deadly fumes which are destroying our health worldwide, not least in Burngreave.”
He has encouraged all Sheffield residents to participate in the consultation which was launched by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority as part of the statutory process to bring the buses back under public control.
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said on the launch of the consultation: “Today, we’re taking a big step towards fixing public transport in South Yorkshire as we consider going back to the future.”
South Yorkshire Buses were under public control until the 1980s when the Transport Act 1985 introduced privatised and deregulated bus services across Great Britain.
Maria Neira, Director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department at the World Health Organisation, told the International Association of Public Transport in 2023: “Pollution is killing us. A suitable transport system is a critical part of public health. It reduces air pollution, it reduces road traffic deaths, it reduces non-communicable diseases.”
The Burngreave Clean Air Campaign has drawn attention to the health risks associated with high pollution levels.
Air pollution has been linked to up to 500 premature deaths in Sheffield per year, and statistics show that life expectancy in Burngreave is lower than other areas, at 75 for men and 77.8 for women, compared to 83.8 for men and 89.2 for women in Ecclesall.
A University of Sheffield study from December 2024 also found that people living in areas with higher levels of air pollution were more likely to suffer from multiple long-term conditions.
The bus consultation will finish on 15 January 2025.
