A HEREFORD headteacher is considering buying air purifiers to protect his pupils from the high levels of air pollution near their school.

Lord Scudamore Academy executive headteacher Peter Box said his school will investigate the air quality of its nurseries after he became aware of a report which shows air pollution levels were above the legal limit on the nearby A49.

A major Greenpeace investigation last year identified more than 1,000 nurseries within 150 metres of roads that break legal limits for air pollution in England.

The charity’s investigations unit used official government data from 2015 that shows the problem stretches far beyond London to cities such as Hereford.

Mr Box said air pollution is a concern for all Hereford schools and private nurseries, especially those that are close to a main road.

He said: “We would like to thank the Hereford Times for highlighting the problem of standing traffic on all major routes into Hereford between the hours of 7am and 9am and 4pm and 6pm (with information from a Greenpeace survey undertaken in April 2017 from data collected in 2015).

“Many of us will be wondering why nobody has thought to highlight this earlier.

“Thankfully the roads near Lord Scudamore are shown as only just exceeding the legal limit on the day in 2015 when the measurements were taken.

“Unfortunately, we do not know the time of day or weather conditions when the measurement was taken.

“We expect that the new bypass will solve many of Hereford’s traffic problems and provide all Hereford residents with cleaner air to breathe.

“In the meantime we are investigating the air quality in our nurseries and the possible purchase of air purification units.”

A Highways England spokesperson said the air pollution levels were being monitored by Herefordshire Council and were currently within European health guidelines.

He said: “We take the issue of air quality seriously. “It’s being monitored next to the A49 in that area by the local authority where data currently shows that levels are below European health guidelines.

“We can reassure the school we’ll continue to work with our partners and look at whether air quality is being exceeded.”

Marc Willimont, Herefordshire Council head of regulatory and development management services, explained the council was seeing improvements in air quality in the city.

He said: “While we have two borderline air quality management areas in Herefordshire, we are seeing definite improvements in air quality and hope to be in a position in the next few years where these areas are no longer required.

“The council is committed to ensuring the best possible air quality, and in the main we are seeing improvements countywide due in part to improvements in vehicle technology.

“Our current initiatives to improve air quality include investment in an electric vehicle charging network to support the transition to ultra-low emission vehicles and an extensive behavioural change campaign, ‘Destination Hereford’, to increase levels of walking and cycling in the county, which is great for health and wellbeing as well as being environmentally friendly.”