I can’t believe the headlines that Stoke-On-Trent is the most air polluted place in the UK. Apparently the reading was made in “Parliament Street”, taken “over a two-week period”. It measured PM2.5 particulates in the air.

The first problem is… there is no Parliament Street. I assume they mean Parliament Row in Hanley, since Google Maps knows nothing of any Parliament Street in Hanley or indeed in Staffordshire. I hope we’re not being confused with the busy Parliament Street, in the centre of Nottingham?

The study was by some organisation called GRIDSERVE. No, I’ve never heard of them either. Apparently they want to sell you so-called ‘zero carbon’ solar energy. They’re not exactly official, and I can’t discover if their research-design and methods were peer-reviewed for validity. Looks like a headline grabbing exercise to me, aiming to build up a contacts list for their sales force?

Anyway… our Parliament Row is pedestrianised. It’s where the Stanley Matthew statue is, and Waterstones. A fair distance away from the new bus station, and the roads used by buses hauling themselves up to it. And it’s elevated, on top of a hill. Meaning that most often, it’s as windswept as only Hanley can be, with nothing between it and the Cheshire Plain.

How then can it possibly give the highest road-pollution reading for PM2.5 particles in the UK? If measured in the high summer, were the Hanley druggies perhaps smoking right next to the sensor… and blowing their smoke at it? It’s the only thing I can think of.