Clean Air Day in Cheltenham, 17 June 2021

17 June 2021

A successful and enjoyable Clean Air Day in Cheltenham – despite some COVID restrictions still in place. We met lots of residents at our street stall in the High Street. Joining us this year were the NHS Information bus and a local respiratory consultant, who were talking to people about lung health.

We did an on-street live podcast with Cheltenham Radio, and we were also featured on Radio Gloucestershire. A good crowd kicked off the day with Qijong in Pittville Park; Chris Chavasse’s Tree Walk in Sandford attracted the maximum permitted audience, and got great feedback. (If you want to support Chris’s work looking after and maintaining Cheltenham’s trees, please consider sponsoring a tree.) Anna Saunders ran an online poetry workshop in the evening, commemorating the life of Ella Kissi-Debrah.

On Saturday, over 50 cyclists joined our Bike Ride around town, guided by Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Cycling Campaign. Prominent local politicians Max Wilkinson and Alex Chalk took part, and many members took the opportunity to press them for more action on carbon emissions, sustainable transport and air pollution.

The last event was kiteflying in Queen Elizabeth II Playing Fields – a very relaxing end to our celebratory campaign.

We were taken by one of the comments from a visitor to our stall: “Shouldn’t every day be Clean Air Day?”.

And below is a poem that came out of the online poetry workshop, written by one of Clean Air Cheltenham’s founders, Caroline Sherwood.

The Sylphs are Rising

I’ve always loved the air;
Its silent, silky presence,
The way it caresses and unites us
And brings the dawn-song to my ears
 
It marks our beginning
And our end
Inspiring us all life long –
Our respiration –
Until our final expiration
 
The trees that daily sweep our air to freshness
Are mirrored in our lungs:
Perfect filigree of cauliflower trees –
Our inner forest of renewal
 
It must be a race run amuck that could sully
The very air it breathes
How have we come to this?
What greedy, urgent madness have we deified?
 
How many airs can you remember?
I remember the crisp, Swiss air of Schweibenalp and Latsch,
The mellow air of western Summerlands
And the salty tang of childhood seasides
 
And I honour and remember the two who couldn’t breathe
And how they woke us up
One of them told the whole world,
Suffocating beneath the crushing knee.
The other slipped away unknown and out of sight
Drowned by the poison of the relentless road
 
The mother of the little girl, brave Rosamund,
Fought for her, bringing Ella’s name to fame
Changing the law, and making history
 
And now the Sylphs arise,
To sing their clarion call…
Please – let us unite
To restore our precious air
To breathability
 
So that once again
We may be inspired
And granted the grace
To expire with dignity.

Caroline Sherwood
17 June 2021, Clean Air Day
Poetry workshop, facilitated by Anna Saunders