Air quality in Malton should be the key issue Keane Duncan takes on - Yorkshire Post Letters

Duelling, or dualling on the A64? The would-be Mayor of North Yorkshire has the bit between his teeth. He’s galloping around the county spending money (pledging) like a man with four arms. Yet Cllr Keane Duncan has far more serious problems to solve at home in his beloved Norton and Malton, than any dualling of the A64.

To truly earn his spurs, the North Yorkshire Council Executive Member for Highways must first provide the necessary infrastructure to rid Malton and Norton of HGV traffic which is contributing, disproportionately, to dangerous levels of air pollution.

The breathable air in Malton contains two and half times the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended concentration of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) which causes asthma, heart disease, stroke, and dementia, and is carcinogenic - and being breathed-in by adults and children walking along Castlegate, between Norton and Malton, every day of the week.

Instead of posturing with his posse on the A64, Cllr Duncan should take the steps he knows are required to protect our children from the harmful effects of air pollution and fulfil his recommendation to Ryedale District Council (RDC), on 13 July 2021, where he, Cllr Keane Duncan, proposed, and it was resolved, that: “This Council [RDC] wishes to reaffirm the 22-5 decision taken on June 27, 2019 in relation to support for dualling the A64 between York and Scarborough, as well as other improvements in between, including the urgent completion of new slip roads on/off the A64 at the B1257 Broughton Road, and construction of a new roundabout at Musley Bank in response to the 2021 World Health Organisation air quality guidelines.”

I sincerely hope that Cllr Duncan and his MP and Ministerial supporters will now pay special attention to the word ‘urgent' in the RDC resolution, and not allow the dualling of the A64 and its potential benefit to the North Yorkshire economy to come before the health of the people of Malton and Norton, which is being harmed due to the failure of North Yorkshire Council to provide the infrastructure our towns require.