Newtownabbey Borough Council and Newtownabbey Road Safety Committee teamed up earlier this month to provide a Newtownabbey Vehicle Roadshow in the Abbey Retail Car Park. The roadshow, which become an annual event, helps to raise awareness of road safety measures and improve air quality, by allowing motorists to have vehicle emissions testing, headlight testing and a tyre safety check.

102 cars had their emissions tested at the roadshow with motorists being informed of the level of pollution contained within their exhaust fumes. If the amount of pollution was too high, the owner of the vehicle was advised to have their car serviced. Whilst the tests aimed to improve air quality in our Borough, other measures such as car sharing can also help to reduce pollution. Information from Travelwise was also given at the event, detailing the benefits of car sharing. Whilst car sharing reduces the number of cars on the road, resulting in less pollution and improved air quality, there are also other benefits for drivers. The fewer cars on the road will also result in less congestion and parking issues whilst more passengers per car means that transport costs such as fuel can be shared.

Hugh Kelly, Director of Environmental Services at the Council says “Cars are the biggest source of air pollution in Newtownabbey and whilst new developments in vehicle technology are helping to reduce the amount of pollution produced by each individual car, the number of cars on our roads is increasing. Car sharing improves air quality as fewer cars on the road leads to less pollution. This combined with the vehicle emission tests which checked the level of pollution contained within car exhaust fumes and offered remedial advice means the result is likely to be positive on our environment; less pollution in our area.”

The Newtownabbey Road Safety Committee offered the 102 motorists tyre and headlamp beam checks. Over half of the cars tested needed headlamp beam adjustment or missing bulbs replaced and this was provided by Car-Tech of Mallusk, free of charge to the motorists. Magowan Tyres of Mallusk discovered that 12 of the cars also needed new tyres. The detection of these issues has both improved the safety of cars driving around the local area and helped local motorists as headlamps, lights and emissions which are not set right will fail their MOT.

Mrs Pat Martin, Newtownabbey Road Safety Committee says “I would like to thank the generosity of those organisations who took part in the roadshow. By donating their time and expertise, they have demonstrated their commitment to improving road safety and air quality, making Newtownabbey a greener and safer place to be.”