{"id":611870,"date":"2026-05-30T10:24:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611870\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:24:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:24:34","slug":"new-air-quality-figures-reveal-the-most-polluted-parts-of-york-yorkmix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611870\/","title":{"rendered":"New air quality figures reveal the most polluted parts of York | YorkMix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The part of York with the highest recorded air pollution levels has been revealed in the latest air quality figures for the city.<\/p>\n

The highest concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was recorded near the junction of Gillygate and Bootham at 29.9 micrograms per cubic metre (\u00b5g\/m3).<\/p>\n

City of York Council\u2019s Air Quality Annual Report showed the level recorded there in 2025 was down year-on-year and every monitored part of the city was below the 40\u00b5g\/m3 legal limit.<\/p>\n

The report stated council efforts to tackle air pollution included working to improve bus services, encouraging low emission taxis and increasing its use of electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

It comes as data in the report showed 2025 was the second year running that air pollution across monitoring sites in York remained below legal limits for NO2 emissions.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Bootham Gillygate junction. Photograph: YorkMix<\/p>\n

Vehicles are the single-largest source of NO2 emissions which were at their lowest recorded levels in more than 15 years across all monitoring sites bar one last year.<\/p>\n

NO2 emissions in York remain above World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, 10\u00b5g\/m3, which the report stated was typical of much of the UK.<\/p>\n

The highest recorded levels of particulate matter (PM), including from fossil fuel burning, dust, soot and other chemicals, were 17\u00b5g\/m3 at Acomb\u2019s Plantation Drive for PM10 and 9.6\u00b5g\/m3 at Gillygate.<\/p>\n

PM levels were below national limits and the PM10 level at Plantation Drive was down, but the PM2.5 level in Gillygate was above 2024\u2019s highest amount monitored, 9\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

The Blossom Street and Holgate Road junction had the second-highest maximum concentration of NO2 which was representative of long-term exposure in 2025 at 29\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Blossom Street- Holgate Road junction. Photograph \u00a9 Google Street View<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawrence Street had the third-highest level, 26.8\u00b5g\/m3, followed by the Fishergate and Paragon Street with 26\u00b5g\/m3 and the Rougier Street and George Hudson Street junction, 25.6\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

Coppergate\u2019s level was 24.5\u00b5g\/m3, followed by Fulford with 23.1 and Nunnery Lane\u2019s junction with Price\u2019s Lane, 22.8\u00b5g\/m3 and Salisbury Terrace, 19.4\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

Levels of NO2 emissions were down year-on-year at every monitoring site except the Fishergate and Paragon Street junction where they rose by 2.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

Monitoring of PM10 levels in York showed Plantation Drive\u2019s 17\u00b5g\/m3 last year was down from 17.8\u00b5g\/m3 in 2024.<\/p>\n

But Fishergate\u2019s level rose from 15.4\u00b5g\/m3 to 16.6\u00b5g\/m3 and Bootham\u2019s went up from 12.6\u00b5g\/m3 to 13.2\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

\"\"Traffic queuing on Bootham in York. Photograph: YorkMix<\/p>\n

After Gillygate, Bootham had the highest PM2.5 concentration at 8.7\u00b5g\/m3, followed by Fishergate, 8.6\u00b5g\/m3, and Holgate, 8.3\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

All levels were at three-year highs but remained below the target mean of 10\u00b5g\/m3.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s report stated short-term trends and yearly changes in PM were less dominated by local pollution, with those emissions tending to come from heating systems, waste and farming.<\/p>\n

Gillygate trial<\/p>\n

Efforts to tackle pollution in 2025 included encouraging bus use, with the council estimating Park And Ride use in December alone resulted in 61,700 less cars travelling into central York.<\/p>\n

A year-long traffic signal sequencing trial aiming to reduce standing traffic in Gillygate concluded at the end of 2025 and a decision on permanent changes is expected later this year.<\/p>\n

Almost half, 45 per cent, of council-licensed taxis were low emissions vehicles by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

The authority\u2019s vehicle fleet was 77 per cent electric by the end of last year and the council also promoted an anti-idling campaign and clean air awareness initiatives.<\/p>\n

It also began indoor air quality monitoring to help with retrofit programmes and it public Air Alert pollution service has had more than 25,000 online visits since its 2024 launch.<\/p>\n

Future efforts are set to include the expansion of York\u2019s electric vehicle charging network and a city-wide Smoke Control Area which comes into force in November.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s report stated: \u201cBreathing polluted air damages our health and costs the NHS and society billions of pounds every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAir pollution is recognised as a contributing factor in the onset of heart disease and cancer and can cause a range of health impacts, including effects on lung function, exacerbation of asthma, increases in hospital admissions
and mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The part of York with the highest recorded air pollution levels has been revealed in the latest air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-611870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}