Highways England steps in to improve toxic air in Dorset village
Highways England is to impose a permanent 30mph speed limit in a village suffering high air pollution after a trial achieved an improvement.
Last year Friends of the Earth named Chideock Hill as experiencing the worst air pollution in England, with annual average level of 97.7ug/m3 of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) against a legal limit of 40ug/m3.
Chideock has been identified as an Air Quality Management Area by Dorset Council. Highways England said that, working closely with the local authority, it initiated a trial speed limit along a section of the A35 at the western end of the village in September 2019.