AN air quality summit for schoolchildren to express their ideas about how to clean up fumes in Trafford was hosted by Stretford and Urmston MP Kate Green

At the end of last year, Ms Green conducted a survey of local schoolchildren, which found that the majority of children who responded didn’t think that the air around their homes and schools was clean or good to breathe.

She recently met children from Victoria Park Junior School, Victoria Park Infants, Gorse Hill Primary, St Monica’s and Davyhulme Primary to find out what they wanted to be done to clean up our air.

In small groups, the children drew creative pictures showing what they thought was good for clean air and what they thought was bad.

In a lively discussion which followed, the children listed their ideas for how to improve air quality, and voted for their favourite - more electric cars and fewer diesel vehicles on the road.

The children also said they wanted to see more parks and green spaces in the community and discussed different ways of getting to school which could help clean up the air.

The summit, on January 6, inspired children to act and think of greener ways to get to school. Victoria Park Junior School plans to introduce a walk to school bus to help cut down on the number of cars on the road during the school run.

Ms Green said: “It was great to meet local schoolchildren and find out what they wanted to do to tackle problems we have with air pollution in our community.

“The World Health Organisation has said that air in the Greater Manchester area contains levels of dangerous particles which are above the legally safe level to breathe. This has a really serious impact on the health of children growing up around here. We need to act now to save children’s growing lungs.

“I was incredibly impressed by the wide range of ideas from the children – it was clear air quality is an issue which is really important to them.

“I’m now going to share the children’s priorities with government ministers and the Manchester Mayoral candidates to put pressure on them to act on the future of the air we breathe in Stretford and Urmston.”