LOWER speed limits could be introduced on the Wycombe district section of the M40 in an effort to cut air pollution.

The M40 corridor is the only part of Wycombe district likely to fail government clean air control limits for nitrogen dioxide by the target date of 2005.

The council has to come up with a plan to tackle the problem so that the targets are met and one possible answer could be lower speed limits though improved vehicle technology should also do the trick.

The government has set councils clean air targets on seven key pollutants: benzine, carbon monoxide, butadiene, lead, nitrogen dioxide, particulates, and sulphur dioxide.

Wycombe District Council expects to beat the targets on all apart from nitrogen dioxide and only miss this by a small amount, according to Rod Marshall divisional environmental health officer. At a council cabinet meeting last Monday, Bill Bendyshe-Brown, the cabinet member responsible, said the motorway and a 12 metre strip of land on either side had to be declared an Air Quality Management Area.

He said there were other roads which might seem to be worse in Wycombe in residential areas, but they would hit the target. Afterwards he told the Free Press that the worse bits of the motorway were at junctions, such as the one at Loudwater and Stokenchurch.

He said emissions from vehicles were dropping but this was offset by the increase in vehicle numbers. Reducing speed limits might be a help and improved vehicle technology, he said.