Motorists in Calne are being urged to look at more environment-friendly forms of transport to combat high levels of nitrogen dioxide.

Wiltshire Council has launched a website of air quality monitoring data, which shows small hotspots in Calne, Devizes, Bradford on Avon, Marlborough, Westbury and Salisbury.

Monitors in Calne showed the UK Air Quality Standard was not being met in Curzon Street, The Square and New Road, an area of 24 properties, and Wiltshire Council attributes these excess levels to exhaust emissions.

Calne Air Quality working group was set up in May 2012 to address the problem.

Chairman Glenis Ansell said: “We’re all too quick to get in the car. It’s not wildly over the limit, but traffic doesn’t get any less. It’s where there are pinchpoints, a concentration of traffic idling. You’ve only got to look at the buildings around to see the amount of dust that accumulates and we’re all breathing that in.”

The group, made up of members of the Calne Environmental Network, Sustrans and others, wants people to change lifestyles and parents to pick up their children from school on foot.

Mrs Ansell said: “It is an uphill struggle when you’ve got big lorries spewing out pollution, so it’s a case of keeping them moving. If you’ve got cars sitting outside schools, the lorries aren’t able to get past.”

Last week, the town also took delivery of a monitor to measure particulates, dirt and dust that can aggravate the respiratory system.

People can register on the www.wiltshireairquality.org.uk website to get free text and email alerts if air pollution rises.

The site was launched last Thursday by corporate director Maggie Rae and cabinet member for public health Keith Humphries.

Mr Humphries said: “We have been working hard with local communities to improve air quality in pollution hotspots around Wiltshire. However, it is difficult due to the increased use and reliance on the car.

“This new website will help people see where the problems are in the county and, hopefully, help change some travel habits.”