Sheffield City Council says they are “playing hardball” in making IKEA and Meadowhall pay £30 million for the road changes needed to handle the increased traffic they will generate. If the Council regards health and air quality as high priority, why isn’t it being tougher with them on air pollution?
There appears to be deliberate silence on the air pollution impacts of the many developments coming soon close to M1 junction 34. The locations are chosen to bring in customers and stock via the M1. Everyone knows that people living in Tinsley suffer maximum exposure – Darnall council ward has very high levels of asthma, respiratory and circulatory disorders and cancer linked to high levels of poverty.
Sheffield Green Party is currently drafting a submission to the Meadowhall Leisure Extension planning application. This is the key question we will be asking the planning committee to consider:
“At the IKEA decision meeting in 2014 the Council’s Director of Public Health stated ‘The exacerbation of poor air quality will undoubtedly cause more illness and very probably a small number of premature deaths. The adverse consequences are very unlikely to be outweighed by improvement in employment prospects and improvement in the economy.’
Sheffield Council’s Public Health Strategy, approved at Cabinet on March 15th 2017, states: ‘We will adopt a principle of health in all policies & systematically consider health and wellbeing outcomes, and inequalities across all of the decisions.’
How can this application proceed without major health impacts on vulnerable people in the areas affected by the business undertaken on this site?”
Eamonn Ward
Sheffield Green Party
In response to http://www.thestar.co.uk/business/ikea-and-meadowhall-pay-30m-to-cut-jams-in-sheffield-1-8718756