ROADS could be closed outside every school in Southend for pick up and drop-off times after shocking new figures revealed almost 100 schools are in pollution hotspots.

Research carried out by the British Lung Foundation show Southend has 41 nurseries, schools and colleges in areas with potentially dangerous levels of air pollution, while Basildon has 56 schools at risk.

Southend Council ran a pilot scheme in December with Greenways School and Leigh North Street called School Streets, which restricted cars during key times.

Now deputy leader of Southend Council, Ron Woodley, says the council will be looking at all schools with a view to rolling it out further.

He said: “We’ve already got two schools on the go and we would have had two more operating by now but because of Covid that’s been stopped.

“It is our programme to look at all these - initially primary schools - to make sure the air quality is improved and having the School Streets programme in place will help that.

“We will be looking at every school and every street and looking at what we can to reduce it.”

Environmental campaigner Jon Fuller has backed the plans and asked for it to be extended to secondary schools.

Mr Fuller, from South East Essex Friends of the Earth, said: “It’s extremely concerning because toxic air permanently damages lungs of children and can cause them to suffer from adverse health conditions.

“This is something that the local authorities must address.”

Deputy leader of Basildon Council, Kerry Smith, said one way to tackle air pollution is by improving the quality of schools so parents are less inclined to drive from one end of the borough to the other.

Mr Smith said: “There are too many schools where parents are travelling from one end of the borough to get their kid into either their school of choice or any school they can get their kid into.

“What you want to make sure is that every parent can get their child into the nearest school that they can walk to fairly easily and for that to be the best school going and that’s how we cut down on vehicle emissions.”

Councillor Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment and planning for Southend Council, said: “The current levels of fine particulate matter across the borough does fall in line with existing national Government guidelines. However, the council currently has two Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) in the borough – along Victoria Avenue and at the Bell junction.

“We take air quality extremely serious and we have recently introduced the ‘school streets’ scheme.”

An Essex County Council spokesman said it is committed to improving air quality throughout the county.

They added: “Initially our focus is tackling this in major town centres and some residential roads near industrial estates, where we know air quality is the poorest. However, we understand that this is an issue throughout the country and will continue to do all we can to make our county greener, cleaner and healthier.”