07/09/2026
1000 Voices comment on West Northamptonshire Council's recent air quality press release.
WNC are finally admitting that polluted air is a major health problem impacting local residents, contributing to strokes, asthma, heart disease, lung cancer and costing billions. Before the 1000 Voices Toxic Air campaign started air quality was not on their agenda. For over 20 years successive councils ignored the problem in-spite of it being highlighted by DEFRA as a serious problem back in 2003.
1000 Voices attended 27 meetings over a two year period, full council meetings and some cabinet meetings. We demonstrated at those meetings, sometimes disrupting the meetings to get our message across. We were simply asking for the health of Northampton’s people to be taken seriously. We wanted local people’s health to be considered as important and to be prioritised.
This sustained pressure by 1000 Voices made a difference. Voices were heard. It’s great to see that our protests have been recognised by councillor Andrew Last the cabinet member responsible for Air Quality “Air quality is one of the biggest environmental risks to the health of our local residents and they have told us its been a significant concern”. When he refers to ‘residents have told us’ its 1000 Voices that wouldn’t go away, 100’s of local people who attended the protests who made the council act. Without this constant and heavy pressure they would have continued to do nothing.
Regarding the three schemes they highlight as contributing to their plans to reduce air pollution, 1000 Voices note none of these measures are WNC local schemes. All of them are nationally driven schemes which WNC like any other council apply for the funds and are tasked with delivering
Scheme 1 – Electric buses. Without 1000 Voices pressure Northampton would not have electric buses. There was no mention of electric buses until long after our campaign started. These buses have happened because of local people power.
Scheme 2 – EV Charging Points. It beggars belief that WNC have referred to this scheme as contributing to lowering air pollution. To date we have only 389 across West Northamptonshire, not just Northampton. 3000 charging points are due to be installled with WNC saying their new scheme is ambitious. Lets compare this to Hampshire County Council, they already have over 3,000 and are adding a further 17,000 charging points, which is 2.3 times more per person than here in West Northamptonshire. If our 3000 is ambitious imagine what WNC would call Hampshire.
Scheme 3 – Wood burning. Due to the cost of living crisis many people have been driven to start using wood burners and open fires. There is a significant health risk as they are a major contributor to air pollution. The extent of WNC’s support for families is to provide an on-line advice scheme, like the other two schemes this again is a national scheme.
This WNC statement is a smoke and mirrors tactic. 1000 Voices will continue its demand that WNC focus on achieving air quality standards set down by the World Health Organisation – this is not a fantasy, this is exactly what our neighbours in Oxford City Council are striving to achieve.1000 Voices call upon WNC to take the health of Northampton people seriously and be genuinely ambitious.
West Northamptonshire Council’s latest Air Quality Annual Status Report confirms that air quality continued to improve throughout 2025, thanks to continued efforts to reduce air pollution locally.
