Dartford Borough Council is encouraging parents to reduce their air pollution impact by not idling their cars during the school run.
Banners are being installed at primary schools as part of the initiative to educate drivers about air pollution.
The first anti-idling banners are being installed at two locations outside Dartford Primary Academy in the coming weeks, with up to three schools able to use them at any given time.
Schools are daily hotspots for vehicle idling, which is when a vehicle remains stationary unnecessarily for at least a minute. This means children face greater exposure to harmful pollutants than many others just by being picked up and dropped off at school.
Leader of the Council Jeremy Kite MBE and the Mayor of Dartford Cllr Paul Cutler visited the school on Monday (July 11) to unveil the banner with pupils from Year 3 and Year 5.
Cllr Kite said: ‘It’s unavoidable that some parents and carers will have to drive their children to school. But what they can avoid is pumping potentially harmful pollutants outside the school gates.
‘We pride ourselves on keeping Dartford’s air clean, despite the challenge caused by traffic on the M25 and A282.
‘Encouraging people to switch off their engines whenever possible is a simple way of reducing air pollution. It is the Council’s hope that this message will spread beyond the playground and bring about a positive behavioural change.’
The anti-idling project is one of several measures included in the Council’s 2022 Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP), produced as part of its statutory duties required by the Local Air Quality Management framework.
With small gestures, it is possible to actively contribute to reducing the level of air pollution: credit is due to the municipality of Dartford, which has realized how much pollution is caused by vehicles that remain stationary and switched on for even a short time. Schools are among the places most affected by this habit: parents waiting to see their child enter or leave tend not to turn off their cars. Encouraging them to abandon this habit makes it possible to reduce harmful emissions but, above all, it reduces children’s exposure to health-damaging gases.