Today, Thursday 17 June, Clean Air Day 2021 will see schools, hospitals, workplaces and communities across the UK run events and campaigns to inspire people to take simple steps to protect their health and their families’ health from air pollution. As an organisation, Cumbria County Council is committed to reducing our carbon footprint. That’s why we’re supporting Clean Air Day on Thursday 17 June. Air pollution affects you from your first breath to your last and causes up to 36,000 deaths in the UK every year. Clean air is essential for our health, and the co-benefits of clean air measures are good for our wellbeing as well as the planet. The good news is that our air pollution crisis is solvable and there are simple steps we can all take to improve the quality of the air we breathe and cut down on the pollution we emit. The Council has a number of initiatives designed to help reduce our carbon footprint as an organisation - these include a fleet of electric vehicles for staff to use to travel between sites and making digital improvements with ICT equipment to help reduce the need to travel to and between offices for meetings. We are also investing in charging infrastructure, installing a total of 30 new electric vehicle charging points located at five Council-owned sites in the county. This is in addition to a number of charging points already provided by Cumbria County Council that are available for public use. A list of sites can be found at: www.cumbria.gov.uk/electricvehicles. Cllr Celia Tibble, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “I am delighted that the Council is again supporting Clean Air Day - it’s a national day of action to raise awareness about the dangers of toxic air and how we can all contribute to reducing pollution. I think it’s so important to know about the damage that pollution causes, so I’d urge everyone to think about what they can do to help improve air quality and reduce the harm from pollution. We’re lucky to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country - let’s keep it that way by working together to care for our environment.” For more information about practical steps you can take to reduce pollution and breathe cleaner air, visit the Clean Air Day website - www.cleanairday.org.uk. |