More than a thousand locations across England are breaching legal air pollution limits, research has found.
Analysis by Friends of the Earth shows 1,360 sites exceed the Air Quality Objective for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) levels, although this is down from 1,591 locations the year before.
Simon Bowens, clean air campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: 'Failing to fix air pollution costs lives. It also shows a failure to address the climate crisis because the sources and solutions are intrinsically linked.
'If ministers want to avoid a return to the health-damaging and illegal levels of air pollution we had before lockdown, their enthusiasm for ‘active travel’ needs to be a permanent switch and not just a short-term gap plugger.'