It made it into last Saturday’s national radio news: air pollution levels in eight local authority areas are dangerously high - much higher than previously believed to be, and the problem is rapidly rising levels of vehicle exhaust. Included in the list was Broxbourne, a town not dissimilar to Watford in respect to volumes of traffic (ie, more than 30,000 vehicles a day). In particular the levels of diesel exhaust particulates, and of nitrogen dioxide that are harmful to health, particularly for the young. These pollution levels rise with increasing congestion. The congestion that comes with over-development which seems to be the planning department’s speciality. Last Friday’s front page had the headline “700 homes agreed in one night”. It was Holywell (as usual) that was the planning committee’s expansion zone of choice; quiet Sydney Road is next for the “town cramming” treatment. Nearby, Rickmansworth Road has become a line of stop-start fuming traffic from 4pm ‘til 7pm. The queues go right down to the Ascot Road roundabouts and sometimes beyond. The children walking home from the schools are exposed to this pollution, to say nothing of those living in the area.

A few months ago I wrote to the Mayor a letter entitled “Watford’s decline into polluted gridlock” (I don’t have to spell out its contents). The Mayor wrote back stressing how the Lib Dems were very keen to put in cycle-ways, more buses, and he stressed the benefits that the Croxley Rail Link would bring. These are good projects and I wish him all the luck in the world with them, but will they reduce the traffic by any noticeable degree? Does anyone really think so? I realise the Town Hall is up against a lot of developer-friendly planning policy from government, but to see Watford steadily being transformed into a characterless dormitory for London, and one that all but seizes up for two hours every morning and evening, is really depressing.

Clive Jones

Gade Avenue, Watford