THE town council might consider a campaign to encourage drivers who idle in traffic to turn their engines off, in a bid to tackle air pollution.

An issue raised by a resident was flagged up to Cheshire West and Chester about high levels of air pollution in the Moss Lane area of town.

The matter was taken up by Cllr Cernik who was able to allay the fears in that specific area, but admitted it was a national problem.

“The resident had got some information from an article by an organisation called addresspollution.org,” Cllr Cernik said at the town council meeting on Monday, May 9.

“This organisation is a lobbying group and they’d taken some research done by Imperial College, London and provided ‘guestimates’ using computer models.

“This isn’t accurate data, although we do know however that nationally, we do fall below what is expected for air particulates.

“The biggest reason for that by far is due to traffic.”

Cllr Cernik went on to mention how CWAC’s overall aim is to eventually have only electric cars on all roads across the borough.

“One of the problems we face is that although it would be great to do some live monitoring, the costs of doing so are extremely high,” she added.

“The council are looking at the possibility of running a pilot at much lower costs.

“Although there is pollution which causes damage to people, the power of town and borough councils to affect that is minimal in some ways.

“There are some campaigns about reducing idling, particularly where people are living.

“There are parts of London where people are encouraged to take on drivers who just sit there and ask them to turn their engines off.

“A campaign like that is something as a town council we might consider having here.

“If you know you’re sitting in traffic for two, three, four or five minutes, just turn your engine off.”

Cllr Catherine Fox said there are sensitive areas in Northwich in terms of air pollution, with Winnington Hill being a particular concern.

“The bottom of Winnington Hill is where you get a lot of stationary traffic, because it obviously builds up as drivers are waiting to cross the bridge,” she said.

“And it’s where traffic sits is the problem.”

The council agreed to consider options, including a campaign, in an effort to help tackle the problem.