There was a strong turnout for the first public meet up of a community clean air project on Saturday (Sat 16) at St Denys Church Hall.

 

Locals came together over tea and cake for the ‘St Denys Clean Air Café’, to talk about how to make the air cleaner in the local area, and what the community can do to make changes happen.

Organised by the Breathing Spaces project, it was described as the “start of a series of conversations and project ideas”.

The afternoon focused on looking at the issues and problems faced by St Denys, as well its many assets – including people.

“We know that air pollution is a major issue in Southampton and that in St Denys we’ve got a combination of very busy roads, we’ve got the aeroplanes flying over, we’ve got the railway line, and there’s a very interesting, vibrant community – but people are breathing in some really poor quality air,” said organiser Rebecca Kinge, who stressed that implications for people’s health and health services were significant.

A second session is provisionally planned for Saturday, April 27 to focus more on solutions.

Meanwhile Breathing Spaces, which is supported by Nesta’s Connected Communities Innovation Fund and which runs for a year, will be monitoring air quality data with up to 12 sensors in various places in St Denys, including on people’s houses, in conjunction with the University of Southampton.

The project is also encouraging people with ideas to deliver their own small projects with support and possibly parcels of funding.

“If we’re dealing with air quality it’s not something we’re going to change overnight, it’s going to take years potentially, but we’re really interested in the small changes that can make a difference to people’s lives now, immediately, with a view to then doing things to reduce emissions, from vehicles and other sources in the longer term,” said Rebecca.

Project lead Mandi Bissett said around 50 people came to the community café, which she said was “absolutely amazing”. She described it as a “very diverse community coming together to talk about these issues”.

“There seemed to be a lot of energy and enthusiasm to make some change in St Denys,” said Mandi.