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There are millions of vehicles on our roads every day. | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
My children are breathing this in, I'm breathing this in. | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
Tonight, we speak to those living on the UK's most polluted | :00:14. | :00:15. | |
Some lorries going past, you can feel the room shake. | :00:16. | :00:24. | |
I wish they'd flatten it and give us somewhere else to go. | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
We find out the pollution levels they're living with. | :00:28. | :00:34. | |
We take one rather unconventional car out for a test drive. | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
And we ask what needs to be done to remove a hidden danger | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
This is a public health crisis and we need to act now. | :00:44. | :00:58. | |
It's 8am and rush hour on a cold January morning. | :00:59. | :01:06. | |
For families living on this street, it's the start of another day. | :01:07. | :01:28. | |
Daisy, get your boots on please. But some lows here are far from normal. | :01:29. | :01:36. | |
This is the most polluted street in the UK outside London. | :01:37. | :01:38. | |
The pollution from traffic here is regularly breaking legal limits. | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
I've lived here for nearly 40 years, and the traffic, every year, you can | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
see it getting worse and worse and worse. | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
It's two weeks into 2017, and Hafodyrynys Road near Crumlin | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
is about to use up its entire air pollution limit for the year. | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
You don't want your children growing up being poorly. | :02:00. | :02:01. | |
You want them to be able to go out front door and not be | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
And that's just not happening at moment. | :02:08. | :02:09. | |
The poor quality air, dust and noise from traffic on this | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
road is something people living here have long been used to. | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
Neil's wife Dawn has lived here all her life. | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
I find now it's the air isn't so clear as what it used to be. | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
Six doors up, Amanda Jones has tried to shut out the problem. | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
We keep window open just to let a bit of air circulate. | :02:36. | :02:48. | |
The problem with doing that is that you end up with black | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
It's all the exhaust fumes, as you can see, | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
Traffic pollution isn't just a problem here: it's something | :02:57. | :03:04. | |
health professionals say everyone should be concerned about. | :03:05. | :03:06. | |
I'm meeting Huw Brunt from Public Health Wales. | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
Air pollution is something that affects everybody. | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
Smoking is probably the number one public health priority - air | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
pollution probably comes second to that, actually. | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
If you talk about obesity, inactivity and alcohol, | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
they come, actually, behind air pollution. | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
Here in Wales, air pollution contributes | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
Across Wales to date, more than 40 of these have been | :03:33. | :03:44. | |
declared - including in Crumlin, Mountain Ash, Cardiff and Newport. | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
And just this year, another has been declared in Merthyr Tydfil. | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
One of these areas is Hafod in Swansea. | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
It's one of five areas in Wales where traffic pollution is so bad | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
I've come to meet some of the people living and working | :04:02. | :04:10. | |
Some days you have the rush hour traffic, school traffic, | :04:11. | :04:32. | |
but its constant traffic nearly all the time. | :04:33. | :04:33. | |
Even from the middle of the night, it's traffic. | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
What impact does the traffic have on them? | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
It does affect them a little bit with their chests and that. | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
I find with the traffic, sometimes it's the safety of how | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
much traffic is there when they want to go out and play. | :04:52. | :05:01. | |
It's hard work crossing the road during the day, mind. | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
You can see now, it's absolutely shocking, isn't it? | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
Chris Morris works for a florist on Neath Road, | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
Oh, I never open the windows during the day. | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
Because there's so much traffic outside, all my clothes | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
would be smelling of petrol and everything, so no. | :05:20. | :05:21. | |
It's got to have an effect in some shape or form, | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
Is it going to affect my children's health? | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
Such a busy road and such an immense volume of traffic | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
And football day, it's absolutely atrocious. | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
Something should be done, something to ease the volume, | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
Just changing the tube for you, for the traffic. | :05:38. | :05:45. | |
Around the corner, equipment is being checked by the council | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
The Neath Road is one of the early areas we started measuring in, | :05:51. | :06:00. | |
due to the high volume of traffic and residential exposure | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
Nitrogen dioxide is what we're looking for. | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
So, we're looking for the products of combustion, secondary nitrogen | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
dioxide to do with the road traffic, so basically vehicle exhausts. | :06:14. | :06:15. | |
For people living in Hafod, Tom and his colleagues | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
Monitors like this are becoming a common feature. | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
Down the bottom of the road, can you see? | :06:25. | :06:26. | |
That's to count the pollution, right. | :06:27. | :06:29. | |
I've got asthma, and it don't help, do it? | :06:30. | :06:41. | |
Over the years, I've seen everybody growing up. | :06:42. | :06:44. | |
Gaynor Omar lives on the same road and has run this | :06:45. | :06:46. | |
I've been on this main road for 38 years, and I've seen | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
Me myself, I haven't experienced ill health, | :06:52. | :07:00. | |
It's cars coming into the area to go to their destination - | :07:01. | :07:10. | |
According to health experts, it isn't just smoke and dirt coming | :07:11. | :07:17. | |
from exhausts that's causing an issue. | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
There's a far more worrying hidden problem. | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
The air pollution we're talking about from a public health | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
perspective is the air pollution that you can't see: Nitrogen | :07:28. | :07:29. | |
dioxide, the main source of which is diesel cars. | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
And particulates, those fine particulates that you can breathe | :07:33. | :07:34. | |
In the short-term, we're talking about eyes, nose and throat | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
Long term, more serious consequences - on the heart, on lungs, | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
Traffic pollution on Hafodyrynys Road is recorded by this monitor. | :07:47. | :07:54. | |
Just a week after we started filming in January, the road | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
breached its legal pollution limit for the whole year. | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
Neil and Dawn's lives are spent indoors. | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
They spend most of their time on the ground floor | :08:07. | :08:08. | |
It's easier to breathe down here than what it is upstairs. | :08:09. | :08:16. | |
Dawn is disabled, and Neil's her main carer. | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
In the 70 years Dawn's lived here, she's seen a lot of changes. | :08:20. | :08:30. | |
And me mam, when she was small, she used to play | :08:31. | :08:37. | |
Dawn remembers Crumlin's industrial past, which brought | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
When the pits were here, we had coal fires and all that. | :08:42. | :08:49. | |
There was a lot of smoke here but nothing like it is now. | :08:50. | :09:03. | |
It seems to stay outside, it doesn't go up. You know. | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
68-year-old Dawn has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease This | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
This inhaler I take twice a day for the emphysema. | :09:14. | :09:21. | |
And this one I take this twice a day, and I have | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
this one for in between, when I'm doing things. | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
Poor air quality outside her front door makes leaving the house | :09:33. | :09:41. | |
When I go out the front, all the fumes and everything, | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
Sometimes, we feel like prisoners here. | :09:47. | :10:01. | |
The poor-quality air is also something that's | :10:02. | :10:03. | |
She's concerned that it might be having an effect | :10:04. | :10:10. | |
My children are breathing this in, I'm breathing this in. | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
Daisy doesn't seem too affected, but I've noticed with AJ, | :10:18. | :10:19. | |
AJ does get quite chesty to point where he coughs a lot, | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
it takes him a lot longer to get over. | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
On the bed we have a duvet, and we prop that up on the bed | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
so he can be elevated, so he's not lying flat. | :10:34. | :10:35. | |
He coughs so much, he is sick, and I don't | :10:36. | :10:37. | |
So many nights, I'm on there with him. | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
His bed is actually quite near the window, and so you do get | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
the dust coming down, and I don't think that helps. | :10:45. | :10:46. | |
He has been given an inhaler for when he's really bad | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
I want him to be healthy, to be able to go out and play | :10:50. | :10:59. | |
It makes you feel incompetent as a parent, sometimes. | :11:00. | :11:15. | |
There will be a lot over vehicles. It now and confined. | :11:16. | :11:32. | |
In the valley, paediatric respiratory consultant Iolo Doull | :11:33. | :11:34. | |
deals with the effects of air pollution on children's lungs. | :11:35. | :11:37. | |
As an individual, you won't be able to say, ah, this child was exposed | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
to lots of air pollution, this one wasn't. | :11:41. | :11:42. | |
But on average, you will see, during the first few years of life, | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
they are more likely to cough, they're more likely to wheeze, | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
but most importantly - their lung development will be slower. | :11:49. | :11:55. | |
Back in Swansea, Hayley is also worried about the impact | :11:56. | :11:57. | |
pollution may be having on her family's health. | :11:58. | :11:59. | |
Do you notice anything about the fumes from the cars? | :12:00. | :12:01. | |
My husband and I are both asthmatic, and that does affect you, | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
especially when there's been high traffic, both of us need to start | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
So, has anybody spoken to you generally about | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
My daughter, took her to the doctor's recently, | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
and her chest was bad, and the doctor just put it down | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
to it being winter time and she was prone to having | :12:23. | :12:24. | |
We showed Iolo some of the footage we filmed with the families. | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
The evidence that it causes asthma is less clear-cut. | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
Certainly, it can precipitate asthma attacks if people have it. | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
And then I think the long-term effects, we're still learning about. | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
If you think that you could do that with your finger, | :12:46. | :12:48. | |
What can people do who live on Hafodyrynys? | :12:49. | :12:58. | |
What can they do to stop or try and prevent things happening? | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
The options are very limited, aren't they? | :13:02. | :13:03. | |
Because apart from moving house, what do you do? | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
For families living on Wales' busiest roads, it's not just the bad | :13:09. | :13:11. | |
Noise is also a major issue. It's now 20 to five, | :13:12. | :13:25. | |
so as you can see the traffic is now starting to become bumper-to-bumper, | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
so in another ten, 15 minutes, it literally will be stopped, | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
For Amanda Jones, the noise and vibration from heavy lorries | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
I love my house, and I absolutely love where I live. | :13:41. | :13:47. | |
It's just a shame that the road is busy... | :13:48. | :13:55. | |
It does affect every aspect of your life. Some people are more sensitive | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
to noise and can't sleep. As you see, it's relatively quiet, | :14:01. | :14:02. | |
can't really hear the traffic. More than 200,000 people in Wales | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
are exposed at night to road noise exceeding | :14:08. | :14:28. | |
World Health Organisation So, how bad is the noise | :14:29. | :14:30. | |
on Wales' most polluted road? The World Health Organisation says | :14:31. | :14:37. | |
noise levels above 55 decibels are increasingly dangerous | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
for public health. Average levels on Hafodyrynys | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
Road are 75 decibels. Huw Morgan chairs the Welsh | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
Pollution Expert Panel. He's using a monitor to record | :14:49. | :14:51. | |
an accurate sound level. We're in the upper-70s most | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
of the time here at the moment. It would be quite difficult | :14:56. | :14:57. | |
to sleep upstairs here. It would be very difficult to sleep | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
with the window open. Noise does have its own public | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
health impact - very serious It increases the risk of heart | :15:10. | :15:11. | |
attacks, cardiovascular disease. You might not see that effect | :15:12. | :15:23. | |
if someone's only been living there a few months, | :15:24. | :15:25. | |
but certainly over the long term, it has a very marked | :15:26. | :15:28. | |
effect on people's health, in many cases, additional | :15:29. | :15:40. | |
to air quality impacts, Some residents on Hafodyrnys Road | :15:41. | :15:42. | |
say the noise has become Because of Dawn's disability, | :15:43. | :15:45. | |
she now sleeps in a room on their first floor, | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
and lorries pass just I put ear plugs in, but it don't | :15:51. | :15:52. | |
make a lot of difference. And some lorries going past, | :15:53. | :16:02. | |
you can feel the room shake. As you can hear on the road now, | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
this is a quiet time of the day, so you can imagine what it's | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
like at rush hour. It wakes me up at half four, | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
five every morning, you know. Huw pops in to see Neil and Dawn, | :16:17. | :16:27. | |
to find out just how noisy it is. Outside, the background | :16:28. | :16:40. | |
level's over 70. Every time a vehicle goes past, | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
particularly a larger vehicle outside, that means a big increase | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
on the background level in here. And that is the kind of thing that | :16:53. | :17:01. | |
will just unsettle you. World Health Organisation guidelines | :17:02. | :17:08. | |
say indoor noise levels shouldn't be Deanna and Andrew's house has been | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
up for sale since April last year. They say they want to move | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
away for a quieter life, but they're struggling | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
to get interest. It's a lovely house, pity people | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
can't see beyond the road. People don't want to live here, | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
despite the fact they're lovely houses, nice sizes, | :17:31. | :17:43. | |
garden's like a different world, people do not see beyond this | :17:44. | :17:46. | |
road, which is a shame. According to current law, | :17:47. | :17:48. | |
Caerphilly Council should have produced an action plan | :17:49. | :17:50. | |
for Hafodyrynys Road by May 2015. Almost two years after the deadline, | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
this plan still isn't in place. However, the Welsh Government has | :17:58. | :18:00. | |
told us that it has 'received assurances' that it will be | :18:01. | :18:03. | |
by the end of this month. In some other pollution hotspots | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
in Wales, including in Swansea, councils are already working | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
to reduce levels of pollution. We're developing this prediction | :18:11. | :18:21. | |
system to enable drivers to be warned via messaging screens that | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
there's poor air quality being predicted, or congestion | :18:25. | :18:26. | |
in the traffic, and trying to educate drivers to change | :18:27. | :18:28. | |
their route, take a different route. The council hopes 10% | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
of drivers will pay attention, but is pushing traffic to other | :18:32. | :18:33. | |
areas the answer? Are you tackling the symptom of | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
the problems rather than the cause? Yes, that's always a possibility | :18:38. | :18:43. | |
and a likely occurrence as well. Making sure we're not shifting | :18:44. | :18:45. | |
the problem somewhere else. There are other measures, | :18:46. | :18:58. | |
like increasing cycling routes, the buses, looking | :18:59. | :18:59. | |
at the bus routes. Under current law, councils only | :19:00. | :19:01. | |
have to identify pollution hotspots They are not required to actually | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
bring pollution levels down. They're also encouraged to draw up | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
wider air quality strategies. We asked all 22 local authorities | :19:09. | :19:10. | |
in Wales if they've done So, really, in terms of statutory | :19:11. | :19:13. | |
responsibility, we're looking There, sadly, the | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
statutory powers stop. Certainly, over the past decade, | :19:19. | :19:27. | |
what's becoming increasingly obvious And we have, I think, | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
misled people by thinking that it's They don't live in that hot spot, | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
so it doesn't really matter. Clearly, there is a broad | :19:38. | :19:44. | |
air quality problem. The Welsh Local Government | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
Association said that despite 'severe cuts' in budgets, | :19:52. | :19:53. | |
air quality management 'remains They also said the onus for reducing | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
air pollution levels does not solely rest with them, | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
and that consumers, industry and governments | :20:05. | :20:06. | |
all have a role to play. Pollution isn't just | :20:07. | :20:14. | |
a problem for Wales. Across the world, it's becoming | :20:15. | :20:16. | |
an increasing concern, and it's something cities | :20:17. | :20:18. | |
across Europe are waking up to. In London, new mayor Sadiq Khan | :20:19. | :20:27. | |
has doubled spending on the problem to ?875m, | :20:28. | :20:30. | |
bringing in electric buses, more charging points for electric cars, | :20:31. | :20:32. | |
and trying to get older diesel cars You're covered in, like, oily | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
grease, when you wipe your face, but you do see a lot of people | :20:36. | :20:50. | |
walking up here with masks, so obviously, there is some | :20:51. | :20:53. | |
impact on all of us. Whenever you cough or sneeze, | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
you know you've had some horrible black dust in you, | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
so I think it's pretty shocking. I'm from Scotland, where we actually | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
have clean air, so there's Andrea Lee works for | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
ClientEarth, which campaigns She's taking us to measure | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
pollution levels on some It's measuring what we call PM 2.5 - | :21:15. | :21:21. | |
very fine particles that are less The mayor is also introducing | :21:22. | :21:30. | |
an Ultra-Low Emission Zone which will charge the worst | :21:31. | :21:48. | |
polluting diesel vehicles Low-emission zones can be a very | :21:49. | :21:50. | |
good tool for trying to target the dirtier, | :21:51. | :22:04. | |
more polluting vehicles. I caught up | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
with Mr Khan last month, charge that some diesel drivers | :22:09. | :22:10. | |
will have to pay when they enter We're not doing anything along | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
these lines in Wales. Should we be, and what's your | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
message to the Welsh Government? Well, I'm the Mayor | :22:18. | :22:20. | |
of London, so let me tell you the context in London - | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
over 9000 Londoners die here There are children in London whose | :22:25. | :22:26. | |
lungs are underdeveloped We've got to take action | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
because inaction won't lead to an improvement | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
of the air in London. So, can we replicate some of what's | :22:35. | :22:42. | |
been done in London here in Wales? I got behind the wheel | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
to put one to the test. of the speed I'm driving | :22:47. | :22:56. | |
at because it tells you how economically you're being in terms | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
of the miles that you're doing. I can see the miles counting down, | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
which gives you a bit of anxiety. you want to make sure you can get | :23:06. | :23:17. | |
where you're going to and don't run out of miles. | :23:18. | :23:19. | |
I'm picking up Huw Morgan in Swansea. | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
The council here has some electric vans, too. | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
They've been fine for normal council light van work, | :23:26. | :23:33. | |
where you're doing of journeys of half a mile to a mile, and charge | :23:34. | :23:42. | |
up over lunch and carry on, it works out all right. | :23:43. | :23:52. | |
Yes, which is exactly what diesels are worst at. | :23:53. | :24:02. | |
This is a challenge for an electric vehicle. | :24:03. | :24:04. | |
Swansea, like many welsh towns, is a hilly place. | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
And we have struggled when we've piloted electric buses. | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
What does Huw think about the idea of banning diesel cars in Swansea, | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
or charging drivers to come into particular areas of the city? | :24:17. | :24:19. | |
I think we're at a time now where we've got to look | :24:20. | :24:21. | |
at keeping diesels out of some very specific areas. | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
We took our electric van around 150 miles of South Wales' roads. | :24:28. | :24:36. | |
It seemed to cope quite well with cities, but motorways and hills | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
Where driving downhill at the moment, and the car is building up a | :24:40. | :24:55. | |
good speed. Going uphill is harder. We've been charging it for an hour, | :24:56. | :24:58. | |
we're on 45 miles now, so fingers crossed, that will be | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
enough to get us back to Cardiff. The technology may not quite be | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
there yet, but we did make it back. are meeting with their local | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
councillor to discuss ideas for We've got this problem | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
of the pollution, and it's We've talked about a bypass, | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
we've talked about electric buses, banning diesel cars, | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
HGVs, one-way system. We've got all the causes | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
but what needs to be done, One of the residents comes up | :25:35. | :25:44. | |
with a possible suggestion: Caerphilly council should step in, | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
and buy their houses. Compulsory purchase | :25:49. | :25:50. | |
is a drastic solution. The problem of the pollution's not | :25:51. | :26:01. | |
going away so what they could Whatever the solution is, | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
it's going to cost money, Demolishing the 23 houses on this | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
side of Hafodyrynys Road sounds But around half of home owners | :26:08. | :26:09. | |
in these houses have told us I would be more than happy for them | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
to say, we'll compulsorily As long as it was a decent | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
price and I could buy That's the only way | :26:19. | :26:26. | |
I could see working. I can't see any other ideas actually | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
panning out unfortunately. I want to get from | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
here, but how can I? I can't get another | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
mortgage at my age. I wish they'd flatten it and give us | :26:41. | :26:43. | |
somewhere else to go. We asked Caerphilly Council | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
for an interview but they refused. In a statement, they said | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
they "fully recognise" that there are air quality problems | :26:50. | :26:51. | |
here on Hafodyrynys Road, and that this is down | :26:52. | :26:53. | |
to the high volume of traffic, and the fact it is an uphill stretch | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
of road in a steep-sided valley. They say they understand | :26:59. | :27:02. | |
the concerns of residents and they are working with them | :27:03. | :27:03. | |
on options for the The Welsh Government recently held | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
a consultation on the way councils But health experts say that, | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
without funding, this won't make We need greater investment in air | :27:10. | :27:17. | |
pollution reduction interventions, We've all got a role to play, | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
but I do think we need stronger leadership from the Welsh | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
Government. And I think, without leadership | :27:28. | :27:29. | |
on a national scale, then we will struggle | :27:30. | :27:32. | |
to crack this problem. The Welsh Government declined | :27:33. | :27:35. | |
an interview, but in a statement, said they are "firmly committed" | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
to reducing emissions and improving air quality in Wales, | :27:41. | :27:43. | |
but they need the public They said their consultation | :27:44. | :27:45. | |
"recognises the health benefits to be gained" from reducing | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
the population's exposure to air They're now in the process | :27:52. | :27:54. | |
of "considering responses" We also asked the Welsh Government | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
if they would follow in London's footsteps to invest | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
in low emission zones. They said councils are | :28:07. | :28:09. | |
already able to do this. For people living on Wales' | :28:10. | :28:18. | |
most polluted roads, Each year, roads in the UK | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
are allowed to breach a fixed air So far this year, Hafodyrynys Road | :28:23. | :28:32. | |
has breached that limit 57 times. Caerphilly council is due | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
to meet on Thursday where, although they wouldn't confirm it, | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
we understand they will consider compulsory purchase orders, | :28:43. | :28:44. | |
along with other options. For Deanna and Andrew, | :28:45. | :28:54. | |
they have made the difficult decision to take their house | :28:55. | :28:56. | |
off the market. Until something is sorted, | :28:57. | :28:59. | |
I don't think we're in a position to sell because I don't think people | :29:00. | :29:02. | |
will really want to We shouldn't have to choose between | :29:03. | :29:05. | |
having a family or where we live. You should be able to have a healthy | :29:06. | :29:13. | |
family wherever you live. Down the road, Dawn | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
is heading to bed. As she waits to hear | :29:18. | :29:20. | |
what will happen on her street, the message to the rest of Wales | :29:21. | :29:28. | |
is clear: doing nothing Award-winning comedian Rhod Gilbert | :29:29. | :29:30. | |
is back for a new series. Please tell me you've got | :29:31. | :29:57. | |
something else I can wear. Would you know what | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
a polyanthus was? No. | :30:01. | :30:04. |