Here is what residents of one of Croydon's most polluted roads thinks of the air quality

It is one of the places with the worst air quality in Croydon.

We wanted to know whether those who live and work in London Road about whether they notice the air quality in their day-to-day lives.

And with the road often bumper-to-bumper with cars the fact that air pollution is high in this part of the borough came as no surprise to many who live and work in this busy shopping street.

London Road, Norbury, is identified in Croydon Council’s Air Quality Action Plan 2017-22 as one of five ‘focus areas’ which are failing to meet the EU’s annual average limit for nitrogen dioxide – 40 micrograms per cubic metre.

Annual air quality stats from 2018 show that London Road was the second most polluted with an annual average of 53.43mg per cubic metre.

Lucy Pitcher who lives outside of the area and works at Universal Estates in the road, said she does notice the pollution.

“All you can smell is diesel and fumes. I live further out so it is only when I started working here I noticed – It is pretty bad,” said Lucy.

“Because the cars start and stop, the flow of traffic is not constantly moving.

“I live in the countryside so I notice it.”

But Airton de Silva, 25, has lived in Norbury all his life and says he doesn’t notice the poor air quality, but does notice that traffic on the road is bad.

And he thinks the council’s School Streets scheme is making traffic in some areas worse.

It restricts traffic from around schools at drop-off and pick-up time to increase safety and reduce pollution around schools.

Airton said: “It pushed a lot more traffic around to other roads that are quite congested or to the main roads.

“I think I am used to [the pollution] so I don’t notice it.

“I only live about two minutes away from work, but sometimes it takes much longer, the road bottlenecks at Streatham and traffic builds up all the way down the road.”

But Diana Ghetau thinks the School Streets scheme is a good idea.

It is currently in place at Downsview where her five-year-old son goes.

The 27-year-old said: “I have been looking online about air quality and I know it does have a bad impact, but I don’t notice it.

“I know at my son’s school, all the parents drive to pick up the kids and the pollution is quite bad.

“Now they have closed the road at pick-up and drop-off time. That is really important because pollution is bad.

“But in places like the high street I don’t know if anything can be done.”

Abdullah Afzal works at a cafe in London Road.

He said: “I don’t notice it [at the cafe] because I am out of the way. I live round here but it doesn’t really surprise me that there is pollution here, it is London, it is expected.”

Adam Khan runs the nearby Daily Fresh fruit and vegetable shop and agrees.

He said: “To be honest you don’t notice anything. I think air pollution is the same all over London.

“The roads are always busy here but I don’t think it is getting any worse and there are definitely other roads that are more busy.”

But Maggie Stewart is concerned about the impact bad air quality could have on her grandson.

The grandmother was visiting from Surrey and walking down London Road with the 20-month-old.

She said: “I do notice the traffic pollution and noise levels are very bad, so I try not to walk on this road.

“When I first came here it was quite a shock. I worry about my grandson breathing in this air.”

Croydon Council declared a climate emergency back in July.

At the time council leader Tony Newman said: “In Croydon we are committed to doing everything we can to make our borough more sustainable. We have a long way to go but we will work with our residents and communities to meet this challenge.”

As well as the School Streets scheme the council is also trying to control the pollution from new developments by tackling emissions from construction sites and vehicles.

It is also trying to work with Public Health England to raise awareness of air quality and encouraging people to walk and cycle more.