Published on Wednesday, April 28, 2021
AIR pollution in Leicester was at its lowest level ever recorded last year, as the city saw a huge reduction in traffic as result of the coronavirus lockdown.
The latest annual figures – collected from a network of air quality monitoring stations at five key locations across the city in 2020 – show that Leicester is meeting all current EU air quality objectives, including for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for the first time since monitoring began over 20 years ago.
European and national guidelines set an annual mean limit value of 40micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) for nitrogen dioxide in the air.
Average levels of NO2 improved significantly at all five monitoring locations last year and represent a reduction of around 60 per cent since 2010, when the highest levels – of up to 80 µg/m3 – were recorded.
At Vaughan Way – one of the city’s busiest roads and an air quality hot spot – average NO2 levels for 2020 were 35.2µg/m3 compared to…
