Safe air pollution limits are being breached in Swindon, putting lives at risk according to campaigners.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth analysed council reports on nitrogen dioxide in the air at monitoring sites across England.

And it warns that failing to fix air pollution costs lives, and shows a failure to address the climate crisis.

The worst offending location is Kingshill Road where the average level of nitrogen dioxide exceeded 48.8 micrograms per cubic metre, more than 20 per cent over the figure of 40 needed to meet government air quality targets.

The World Health Organisation guidelines set this as a safe limit to protect public health.

Swindon Borough Council has previously declared the road an air quality management area in order to try to cut back on the emissions.

John Ranford, a member of the Swindon Climate Action Network, has called on the borough council to do more to lower the levels.

He said: “The air pollution situation in Swindon is dangerous and in some places illegal. On the Kingshill Road you can see the thick black soot from diesel lorries and cars on the fronts of houses. These rented houses are barely habitable and tenants never stay very long.

“But the solution can’t be simply to divert traffic elsewhere in the town. We have to think more strategically.

“Those emissions will still result in even more cases of asthma, and even deaths.”

Earlier this year a study by the independent think tank Centre for Cities said 97 people over 25 in the borough died from air pollution in 2017, higher than anywhere else in the South West.

But the council’s cabinet member for climate change, Keith Williams, said it is working on new plans.

He said: “We take the air quality in Swindon very seriously and we have declared Kingshill Road as an air quality management area owing to the higher levels of nitrogen oxide that have been recorded.

“We did see a slight drop in NO2 levels when the AQMA was declared and recent levels have fallen to just above the Government’s required limit due to the fact fewer vehicles have been on the roads as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are working on plans to prevent heavy goods vehicles from using Kingshill Road and we are focusing on improving cycle routes, while working with local private hire and Hackney Carriage drivers to encourage the use of low-emission vehicles on Swindon’s roads.

“The council has also taken a proactive approach in recent months to promoting electric vehicles in Swindon by teaming up with local bus operators to put in a bid to become the country’s first electric bus town, while developing planning policies so developers incorporate electric vehicle charging points in any new homes built.”