The lush valleys of the Welsh countryside are not the typical landscape associated with the alarming issue of air pollution. And yet, a small town in south Wales has been named the worst pollution spot in the UK outside of London. In Wales, as in many other places in the UK, illegal levels of air pollution have been recorded since 2010.

On Thursday, the Welsh Government will appear in court as a defendant alongside the UK government in a case challenging the lack of plan to tackle illegal levels of air pollution across the country.

The case is part of legal firm ClientEarth’s third judicial review against the UK government over its failure to come up with an adequate and robust plan to improve air quality in compliance with existing EU laws.

Air pollution is believed to contribute to 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK according to a report published last year by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics.

Experts looked at the lifelong impact of air pollution and concluded it had an impact on people throughout their life and played a role in the development of chronic conditions such as cancer, asthma, heart disease, and neurological changes linked to dementia.

Air pollution in court

Concerns over public health have been a key argument in bringing the issue of air pollution in front of UK courts. ClientEarth’s CEO James Thornton accused both the UK and Welsh governments of “failing to protect people’s health”, in a statement to DeSmog UK ahead of Thursday’s hearing.  

In this latest case, the law firm has accused the Welsh government of failing to produce any concrete plans to improve air quality “as soon as possible”.

Although the UK government is responsible to ensure all parts of the UK are compliant with EU legislation, air pollution is also a devolved matter with each country’s government expected to produce their own plan to tackle the issue.

ClientEarth will argue that the UK government’s latest air quality action plan adopted in July failed to require the Welsh government to take any action to bring down illegal levels of air pollution.  Legal representatives for both governments are therefore expected to appear on the defendant’s bench.

The UK government’s air quality plan published in July included a section on Wales. It mentioned the launch of a consultation over a proposal for a clean air zone framework and admitted “other action” will be required where these zones are not appropriate, such as in rural areas.

But a spokesman for ClientEarth described the UK government’s action plan as “plans for further plans” rather than a clear pathway for action.

“For too long the people of Wales have been suffering due to their [government’s] lack of decision on how to tackle air pollution” – Joseph Carter, British Lung Foundation & Healthy Air Cymru

By calling for a judicial review, ClientEarth is hoping for the court to declare the plan unlawful and order both the UK and Welsh governments to “urgently” publish additional measures to comply with air pollution laws.

Nitrogen dioxide limits were introduced in EU law in 1999 with the aim of achieving the targets by 2010. But since then, illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide have been recorded in towns and cities across the UK, with ClientEarth identifying the cause for the pollution as “coming mostly from diesel vehicles”.

The Welsh plan

The Welsh government’s failure to come up with an adequate plan to tackle air pollution is expected to be a significant focus of Thursday’s legal challenge.

The case is anticipated to shine light on the issue of air pollution in Wales, which campaigners say had until recently been side-lined as a matter unique to urban hubs such as London.

Healthy Air Cymru, a consortium of organisations working to ensure people do not develop health conditions because of air pollution, welcomed ClientEarth’s legal challenge.

The groups — which includes ClientEarth along with the British Lung Foundation, British Heart Foundation, Friends of the Earth Cymru, the Institute for Welsh Affairs, Living Streets, Public Health Wales, the Royal College of Physicians, Sustrans Cymru and Swansea University — are calling on Welsh lawmakers to take advantage of devolved solutions to tackle the issue.  

Joseph Carter, head of the British Lung Foundation and chair of Healthy Air Cymru, said in a statement: “For too long the people of Wales have been suffering due to their [government’s] lack of decision on how to tackle air pollution”.

Speaking to DeSmog UK, Carter described a “diverse” pollution problem across Wales with hotspots linked to urban residential areas in Cardiff and Swansea and heavy industry such steelworks in Port Talbot. Carter also pointed out rural areas were not all spared by the problem, with the example of Crumlin, in south Wales, named in August as an area with the worst air quality in the UK outside of London.