URGENT action must be taken to tackle Southampton’s air quality crisis, campaigners and politicians have said.

The city has again been named and shamed as one of the UK’s air pollution hotspots by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Air pollution is responsible for dozens of deaths in Southampton each year, with a government report in 2014 saying it leads to 110 “excess” deaths every year.

City council chiefs say they have a plan to improve air quality, which could see “green” improvements along some of the city’s busiest routes and cruise liners “charging” from shoreside electricity.

The WHO has named 11 locations, including Southampton, which breached the safe limit for a pollutant called PM10, while it is also among more than 40 places to breach the limit for PM2.5 as well.

A Public Health England report in 2011 revealed that the percentage of adult deaths in Southampton due to air pollution in 2011 was 6.3 per cent – the highest in the South East.

The UK faces a fine of about £300 million from the European Commission if pollution levels are not cut by 2020, and the government announced that Southampton will be one of five areas to have a Clean Air Zone, meaning some diesel vehicles will be charged to drive in the city centre.

Earlier this year the Labour council announced that the zones will be introduced early in Southampton, in 2019.

The latest WHO report has led to renewed calls for action to improve the city’s air quality.

Jenny Bates, from Friends of the Earth, said: “This is a public health crisis. It’s time it was treated that way.”

“A Clean Air Zone is already planned for Southampton but politicians must go further; including urgently introducing a diesel scrappage scheme to get the worst polluting vehicles off our roads and more investment in alternatives to driving.”

Catherine Bearder, Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East, called on the Government to take action, saying it “shows far more needs to be done to improve air quality in Southampton.”

She added: “We need action now to tackle the health crisis being caused by air pollution”.

Dan Fitzhenry, deputy leader of the Conservative opposition on the city council, said more needed to be done to tackle the issue now.

Jacqui Rayment, the council’s Labour environment and transport czar, said an action plan included measures like planting greenery to “soak up toxins and nitrates” along roads in the city centre.

She said more cruise liners could be fitted out to plug into an electrical grid while at berth as opposed to keeping their engines on and the council would work with businesses to use more environmentally-friendly vehicle.