A public consultation on ways to reduce air pollution in Crieff has been hailed a success by organisers.
Dozens attended a community engagement meeting on the Crieff Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) this weekend.
Environmental health officials from Perth and Kinross Council were keen to gather views on issues such as parking and traffic control.
Road safety campaigners were also urging residents to use the opportunity to call for a reduction in the speed limit on the town’s High Street.
Kirsty Steven, the Principal officer for Environmental Health, said that Saturday’s event, held at the Strathearn Community Campus in Crieff, had been better attended than previous consultations.
She said: “When we did one for the draft we didn’t get a lot of people. This has been much better and there’s been plenty of dialogue.
“The discussions I’ve had with people so far have been really useful. They have verified some of the things we thought were happening and have raised other things that we hadn’t considered.”
She added: “We are looking at 30 improvement strategies today and want to see how are we going to take this forward and what should we prioritise.
“For example, the issue of parking and loading. We are asking people how is parking in Crieff as we are aware of problems.
“How can we improve the flow of traffic? We have too much traffic at times and it’s all funnelling into what is effectively a canyon and because of that we have breaches of our air quality objectives.”
She said that organisers were investigating why car parks outside the main town centre were being under-used and proposed these as an alternative to allowing on-street parking.
Perth and Kinross Council’s environment and infrastructure committee approved the (AQAP) last summer.
A public consultation ahead of the meeting proved disappointing for the council, receiving just six written responses.
The online consultation was viewed 127 times, but only 66 people completed it.
The local authority said 75% of those who responded agreed air quality in the High Street corridor was poor and in need of improvement.
