CAMPAIGNERS gathered in a city centre square to encourage the use of bikes, electric vehicles and healthy living.

The event was Clean Air Day 2018 and there were performances from a ‘healthy lung’ choir, school children affected by pollution as well as lung health checks by Southampton City Council.

School travel coordinator Hazel Agombar brought St John’s school pupils to the square where they performed a ‘clean air dance.

She said: “We are a city centre school by the docks so anything we can do to reduce the amount of cars coming into the school site is of concern.”

Pupil Romeo Baptista added: “We are here to celebrate clean air day and show people that we need to use less of the polluting transport.”

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Southampton City Council service director Mitch Sanders said the event was to encourage residents get involved in improving the city’s clean air count - which has to be reduced to 40micrgrams per cubic air metre by 2020.

But it’s also the day the city launches its public consultation on the city’s clean air zone - which central government has told the council to get in place - or else face a massive EU fine.

Mr Sanders said: “We are doing everything we can to encourage people to get involved and be aware of clean air. But the government has got lots of funding available for clean air - so we can put support in for various sectors.”

But he reiterated that a controversial plan to charge vehicles £100 to enter the city was for commercial vehicles only and said: “That’s something we really want to get across.”