“DON’T mortgage residents’ health and wellbeing for short term gain” is an advocacy group’s 11^th hour plea to school governors.

Selling off King Edward VI Community College’s Lower Field to housing developers will significantly increase the pollution on Ashburton Road, says Inclusive Totnes.

The A385, which runs alongside the site, is a designated an AQMA (Air Quality Management Area) because its high levels of nitrogen dioxide fail to meet national air quality objectives.

Building a housing development on it will add to the already dangerously high levels of pollution along a road that most children and young people use to walk to school, fears the group.

It would also spell the loss of a vital green space that actually helps reduce air pollution in the area, Inclusive Totnes has warned school governors, who are due to make an imminent decision about the field’s future.

The field forms part of surplus land across the whole school site – a total of 14 acres – that are up for sale in a bid to raise £7million to fund urgent improvements to the remaining site.

In a last minute plea, Inclusive Totnes has urged KEVICC governors to consider the health and wellbeing of vulnerable residents when they make their decision about the Lower Field.

Children, older people and those living with disabilities and long-term health conditions are at more risk from increased air pollution, says the group.

Scientific reports show that exposure to traffic-related air pollution has been linked with excess risks for a range of cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological health issues, specially in young children attending schools next to busy roads.

Jeff Chinnock, Inclusive Totnes co-founder, said: “Building more houses or allowing commercial development on the Lower Field will simply add to already dangerously high levels of pollution along the A385 – a road that the majority of children and young people use as the main way of walking to the school.

“While it is understandable the governors want to raise much needed money for the school, this should not be done if it results in exposing schoolchildren and others in the community to yet more air pollution.

“It is simply not defensible to mortgage the health and well being of people in our community for short term gain, however tempting it may seem.”

Air pollution has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), British Medical Journal (BMJ), and former NHS chief executive, Simon Stevens.

A 2020 review of the relationship between air pollution and cognitive functions in children and adolescents linked exposure to nitrogen dioxide and other traffic-related pollutants to impaired attention, working and short-term memory; loss of fine motor skills; and poor verbal and nonverbal intelligence.

Toxic air from this type of pollution can damage children’s growth and leave them with lasting health problems, posing a particularly severe risk to those children and young people already suffering from heart conditions or respiratory problems such as asthma, said Jeff.

He urged governors to “think again” about the consequences of any decisions they make about selling off the green space.

“Given the gravity of the air pollution problem next to the school and mounting evidence of the serious negative impacts on local communities, and particularly on children and young people, it is imperative that KEVICC and South Hams Council take full and urgent heed of the health warnings from the latest research and of the clear warnings from health organisations such as WHO and the BMJ,” he said.

“If the governors feel they have no choice but to sell the Lower Field, then the best option remains agreeing to any offer that won’t result in the field being concreted over.”

Nearly 3,000 people have signed an online petitionby campaign group Why This Field? urging the school to save the site as an open green space by accepting Totnes Town Council’s £2.5million offer.

The school and governors were asked for comment.