Residents have urged the North East mayor to provide funding for new zero emission buses in Durham City’s most polluted areas.

The City of Durham Parish Council has warned that thousands of schoolchildren and university students are populating areas with “consistently high” levels of air pollution. 

Church Street has been designated as an Air Quality Management Area but remains one of the busiest walkways and one of the most polluted in Durham City, the council warned. Data suggests 59 per cent of the air pollution emissions in Church Street are due to buses alone. 

Kim McGuinness, mayor of the North East, has now been urged to provide funding for new buses that will help clear the air. The Labour mayor previously pledged to provide electric buses across the region to create a greener North East. 

Church Street remains one of the busiest walkways and one of the most polluted in Durham CityChurch Street remains one of the busiest walkways and one of the most polluted in Durham City (Image: Google)

The council said: “The urgent need for us to collectively address the serious air quality issues in Durham City, in particular the Church Street area of Elvet, remains a top priority. 

“We have levels of pollution similar to those which resulted in the death of a nine-year-old child in London several years ago, yet we have a primary school in the street and thousands of students walk down the road each day during term time.”

Councillors also warned that interventions carried out to reduce pollution in Elvet “have not worked”. 

It added: “Please assist these bus routes to have all-electric buses as soon as possible, so that generations of children, young people and adults can breathe clean air when walking down this street in our city.”

Bus services currently operating in Church Street 

• 6 Durham - Cockfield - Barnard Castle Arriva North East 

• X12 Middlesbrough - Durham – Newcastle Arriva North East 

• N21 Newcastle - Durham University College via Gateshead, Low Fell, Harlow Green, Birtley, Chester-le-Street, Framwellgate Moor, Durham Go North East 

• 41 Durham University Science Park - Durham Railway Station Gateshead Central Taxis 

• 42 Durham Railway Station - Mount Oswald Gateshead Central Taxis 

• 56 Durham - Bishop Auckland Arriva North East 

• 58 Bus Station – Interchange Arriva North East 

• 59 Hartlepool Interchange - Durham, Bus Station via Trimdon and Kelloe Stagecoach North East 

• PR2 Howlands Park & Ride – Millburngate Gateshead Central Taxis

Mayor McGuinness hopes her ambition to have a fully zero emission bus fleet by 2035 and bringing the bus network back under public control will help alleviate the situation.

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“I acknowledge your aspiration for buses running along Durham’s Church Street to be prioritised and I will ask my officers to take your request into account when discussing the allocation of future funding for zero emission buses,” she said. 

However, she admitted there is still “unfortunately a long way to go”  from the current plan of decarbonising 10 per cent of the region’s bus fleet by March 2026, to achieving the ultimate aim of a fully zero emission bus fleet by 2035. 

Mayor McGuinness added: “Work has begun to progress my commitment to bring buses back under public control. This will take some time to achieve but it has to potential to accelerate the introduction of zero emission vehicles, and I continue to push for funding for the region to achieve this and other regional aims.”