A committee of MPs has called for the Government to issue new planning guidance to ensure local authorities prioritise air quality in planning decisions.
The Common's Environmental Audit Committee, in a report published highlighting concern over air quality and current levels of air pollution in urban areas.
According to the committee, local authorities should use the current air quality provision in the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that new schools and workplaces have adequate public transport links and can be easily reached by bicycle or walking from the surrounding community to reduce the need for car journeys.
The MPs have called for legal air quality obligations in new infrastructure and road building plans. New schools, hospitals and care homes should not be built next to air pollution hotspots in urban areas to help reduce the deaths currently being caused by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate pollution.
Committee chair Joan Walley said: "Children growing up near busy roads with high NO2 and particle emissions have stunted and impaired lung development. Well over a thousand schools around the country are 150 metres away from major roads.
"Protecting children and vulnerable people in the worst affected areas must be made a priority by Government and local authorities," she said.
