WELL there’s some good news for people living near schools.

Their air quality could well be improved following reports published by two authoritative public health organisations.

If guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE] and Public Health England [PHE] are approved it will mean that parents are likely to be banned from leaving their cars idling while on the school run under new anti-pollution guidance from both bodies.

NICE and PHE have called on councils to enforce a “no idling “ policy near where vulnerable groups such as children and older people gather. Parents could face fines for keeping their engines running outside schools while they are stationary. They say that air pollution is harmful to everyone of us and under 14s and over-65s are more susceptible to the effects.

Perhaps such a purer air policy could be extended to other road users, too. For starters I would add learner driving schools. Day in day out instructors frequently stop their cars right outside houses, leaving their engines idling for far too long. Goodness knows how much their car fumes are polluting the air around us.

Ron Kirby Dorchester