SO, both the planning inspectorate and the Secretary of State have decided that the building of 123 houses adjacent to Quakers Walk will have no detrimental effect on air pollution. I’m afraid that the logic used to arrive at this conclusion defeats me.
About 250 vehicles will be added to the total kept in that area. The only way off the estate is London Road, notorious for its rush-hour congestion. 
Trips by these vehicles will create additional traffic. Each car will add its noxious gases and cancer-causing particulates to the air as they drive along. That much is surely obvious to everyone. 
What may not be so easily recognised is that every vehicle joining congested traffic causes a reduction in the overall speed of the queue. Since the amount of pollutants deposited over a set distance of road is inversely proportional to the speed, every car in that queue will increase its pollutants, not just the additional vehicles, greatly magnifying the impact.
Given these facts, how can the decision to proceed be justified? 
As I understand it, the problem lay not with the Inspectorate but rather with planning law which states that the decision must be made on the impact of that application alone, irrespective of any others. 
So the argument goes like this: The additional traffic generated by this specific development will only add to the problem by a small degree and, in itself, will not be damaging. 
Since this principle has been applied to development after development over the past decade or two the inevitable result has been a build-up of our pollution levels, which in parts of the town run well ahead of those deemed to be safe by the World Health Organisation. 
There is overwhelming evidence that traffic fumes are the cause of a very large number of premature deaths and that this pollution has a disastrous effect on asthmatic children. This is a serious matter which demands action by our elected representatives.
We continue to be told that extra homes, adjacent to congested roads, do not add to these dangers. Nonsense. Given the very real danger to public health, common sense must surely prevail and a holistic view be taken. 
If we continue to get decisions based on this principle of ignoring what is happening in the real world, pollution levels will continue to rise and the community’s health will suffer further damage. 
If, as I believe, the law promotes that, I am with Mr Bumble. The law, sir, is an ass!
TONY SEDGWICK
Newman Road
Devizes