This is what you are breathing in! The doorway to the (now empty) Dorothy Perkins store in Ashbourne is set back from the road (the A515 northbound) in a covered 'porch'. Nothing can fall onto the window frames on the doors except what is brought in on the air. So the thick black deposits on these window frames must be fine particles that were in the air, diffusing in from the highway.
How did that happen?
From the junction between Buxton Road and St John's Street Ashbourne a black dust covers almost half of this road. It is clearly visible on the pavements and on the 'Covid safety' features that adorn our town.
Earth Day 2021
Derbyshire Dales District Council have been trying really hard to make it seem that they have not been dilatory in declaring an Air Quality Management Area for Buxton Road and St John's Street in Ashbourne. Head of Regulatory Services, Tim Braund, is quoted in the Ashbourne News Telegraph as saying that 'a key issue during the council's investigation of pollution in Ashbourne Town Centre has been the repeated theft of the diffusion tubes used to monitor air quality'.
After more than three years a situation that was first recorded in autumn 2017 is finally being officially acknowledged; air quality on Buxton Road Ashbourne does not meet national standards.