Is air quality really a problem in our market towns? Does it have real impacts on our health? Dr Suzanne Bartington, county councillor and medical researcher into air pollution says it is, and it does.

Forty citizens and councillors recently attended a Saturday meeting organised by South Oxfordshire Sustainability (SOS). SOS is an umbrella group for environmental groups in our district, overlapping with that level of governance. Sustainable Wallingford kindly hosted the event.

So yes: cars are producing lethal levels of nitrogen oxides and tiny soot particles for which there is no safe level, in the streets of Wallingford, Henley and Watlington.

Dangerous effects begin in the unborn child as its delicate organs are unfolding, leading to birth defects and small lungs; and then continue in the growing child.

The elderly too, suffer poor health, and pollution is implicated in dementia.

But it is not all doom and gloom: the fact that bad air causes 40,000 deaths and costs the NHS £20 billion a year is enough to press for action. According to Chris Church (who came by bus from Botley to spend the beautiful summer evening with us), Oxfordshire Friends of the Earth are working with Oxford City Council to stop car-idling, especially around schools, and to create a zero emissions zone in the city centre.

The SOS stall at Oxford’s Big Green Day Out in Broad Street earlier that day attracted interesting folk from Oxford and beyond.

The occasional bemused tourist learned about the overdevelopment nightmare in the countryside, and Thame’s emerging Green Living Plan, then refocussed on the immolation of the Oxford martyrs.

How can we realise a clean, safe, prosperous future for our towns?

Oxfordshire Liveable Streets is developing blueprints for cycle- and pedestrian-friendly towns, by mapping out more sensible traffic flows and people-friendly spaces.

This initiative dovetails with the Green Living Plan that RSA Thame is presenting to its town council on June 19, and with a charter that FoE are developing for Oxfordshire.

You can help by contacting your district councillor – find them on the SODC website.

Sue Cooper was recently elected in a by-election for Benson and Crowmarsh, and has always been conscious of environmental issues.

Caroline Newton is re-established as the cabinet member for the environment and is now liaising with SOS on environmental issues, as our founder, John Gordon, envisaged.