Residents in Nantwich have hit out at workers who are leaving vehicle engines idling, causing pollution in local streets.
Nantwich Town Council has been putting up “No Idling” signs at various locations in the town, including level crossings and the bus station.
Now environment campaigner Jeremy Herbert has called on contractors carrying out works for Cheshire East and utility firms to do their part.
His plea comes after noticing Openreach engineer teams in the Hillfield Place area of the town leaving their parked vehicle engines running.
Mr Herbert, who runs Sustainable Nantwich, said: “Idling engines are known to produce far more nasty toxic pollutants than when vehicles are moving – especially the killer particulates from diesel engines.
“Plus they are often sitting by pavements in the heart of communities.
“I have noticed contractors working on roadworks often leave their engines running.
“Every time I see one, I ask them to switch their engines off for the sake of local children who are at exhaust level.
“Over the last few days we have had Openreach laying cables in Hillfield Place.
“The teams have been leaving their engines running.
“When I have asked them to switch off they have done so reluctantly, but then put them back on as soon as I have gone back inside my house.
“We have a lot of young families in Hillfield Place/Jubilee Terrace/Hillfield Gardens.”
A spokesperson for Openreach said: “We’re absolutely committed to lowering our emissions, which includes minimising idling where possible.
“We expect our own engineers, and contractors working on our behalf, to only idle their vans when absolutely necessary – for example when using power from their vans to operate machinery.
“We’ll be contacting the teams working in the area to make sure all understand and meet that expectation.
“As a business we’ve committed to converting to a zero emissions fleet by 2031 and already have more than 4000 EV’s in our fleet.”
Mr Herbert added: “We need to hold these companies to account – communications giants, water companies, housing developers, energy.
“They are all making massive profits through exploiting our environment, and the community ends up bearing the costs.”
(Library pic under creative commons licence)
@Andrew
Took me 30 seconds. The internet is a wonderful thing, if you care to utilise it.
https://www.dudley.gov.uk/business/environmental-health/pollution-control/air-quality/idling-vehicles-contribute-to-air-pollution/#:~:text=An%20idling%20engine%20can%20produce,and%20the%20air%20we%20breathe.
https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/business/environmental_health/local_air_quality/air-quality-awareness/vehicle-idling.aspx
https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/emissions/idling/
“Idling engines are known to produce far more nasty toxic pollutants than when vehicles are moving” – Citation, please.
Its got nothing to do with ‘woke’.
Its common sense – why would you not turn your engine off when its not being used? Bad for the environment, bad for us.
Doesn’t work in cold weather, it costs more fuel and buses will be freezing
What a great idea! ..love .. the Wokester
The Woke brigade have reached Nantwich next they will want to ban tractors driving along Welsh row.
Why do they drive along Welsh Row, Paul? There aren’t any farms on Welsh Row or any of the roads that lead off it any more. They can much more easily drive down past the Football ground and onto Waterlode if they absolutely must come into town on very rare occasions. What other reason is a tractor coming up Welsh Row?
And as for Woke…I’m not sure you know what that means. Are you facing your impending demise and care so little about others that you’re happy for them to breath the fumes from your real-man’s car?