A campaign group are urging north Dorset residents to switch off their car engines when parked or waiting for more than a few minutes.

The community campaign group based in Sherborne suggest that leaving your engine running ‘impacts everyone’s health and wastes fuel.’

A spokesperson for the campaign said: “Unnecessary idling is common all over Sherborne, whether it’s drivers not switching off their engines while they wait for passengers in town, parents idling while they wait for the school gates to open, or cars and lorries leaving their engines running for 10 minutes or more while waiting at the railway crossing.

“Some people even leave their engines running while they leave their cars unattended to pop into shops.”

The RAC suggests that ‘idling increases the amount of exhaust fumes in the air and that these fumes contain a number of harmful gasses including carbon dioxide, which is bad for the environment and contributes towards climate change, as well as a range of other harmful gasses including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons which are linked to asthma and other lung diseases. '