The post you are reporting:
Phil, the air quality in Dover is surprisingly good if one is far enough away from a busy road, which includes the likes of Barton Road, and may-be if a fair wind is blowing to freshen the air.
Alan, I tried DDC website/environment and came to the conclusion that the emission controls were carried out at Eastern Docks, over the years, and that DDC concluded in 2005 to wait and see what would become of a European law on carbon emissions. I suppose you could ask them why no controls were carried out in the Aycliffe area, or along Townwall Strret, or even in Market Square for that matter, or at Gateway.
Dust from traffic is not dust from sand or fields, and is made up of many fine particles of chemical pollution. You have a good case, considering your post here, to take the issue further, as that what you see deposited on the windows or inside the house, is also deposited in your lungs! Being chemical, it is extremely dangerous, and in constant doses at high levels, well yes, poisonous.
However, judging by DDC's website information, even the pollution levels at Eastern Docks seem nothing to worry about! But with on average 8,000 lorries a day passing to and fro in Eastern Docks and strteaming up and down Townwall and Snargate Streets, and past Aycliffe, I think it's high time that the issue be addressed, publicly!
This includes commuter and other traffic passing through other parts of Dover. Including Tower Hamlets at rush hour: it's awful! And many children have to walk there to school or back home.
We are talking here of health standards that the public have to put up with, and my impression is that the DDC Councillors have neglected the whole issue, and made more plans and projects for ever more traffic to come into Dover.
Personally I fully disagree with the idea that Dover has to become Scarborough Fair on a daily basis in order to attract shoppers, in order to prosper. And to be quite truthful, the majority of people in a town do not see any of the profits coming from super-markets and shops. Growth in Dover does not and cannot derive from an over-blated shopping scheme for all and sundry to come here and shop.
I went to Folkestone last month, saw that the town has many shops, and know that Canterbury has many shops - and large ones, and ask myself when this will all end with these constant schemes to transform Dover into an oriental bazar for everyone to come here and do their shopping!
I mean: DTIZ, Whitfield, thousands of new houses, shopping lanes, shops, and allegedly this ''will make Dover prosper''! Hows about a few more farms in Whitfield, a few textile factories in Dover, and a shoe factory, for instance? And a toothpaste factory! The list could become long. But always this attracting 'footfall' to Dover, cruise liners, cars, cars , cars, as if we didn't have enough as it is with the car-ferries and ten thousand cars a day rolling off them!
Lets start considering alternatives for achieving economic prosperity, and also with an eye on our health, and the air we breathe.
