The Council periodically reviews air quality in the local area.
The Environment Act 1995 provides the framework for local air quality management across England and Wales. It requires local authorities to review and assess air quality across their areas, every three years.
The purpose of the review and assessment process is to:
- assess the current air quality against the Air Quality Strategy objectives
- predict the future air quality against the Air Quality Strategy objectives
- designate Air Quality Management Areas where Air Quality Strategy objectives are unlikely to be met and prepare a written action plan for such areas.
Which pollutants we review
Seven air quality objectives have been set for those air pollutants deemed to be of most concern and relevance. The pollutants are:
- carbon monoxide
- benzene
- 1,3-butadiene
- lead
- nitrogen dioxide
- sulphur dioxide
- particles (PM10).
We carried out air quality reviews in 1999, 2003 and 2006.
We designated Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) for areas where nitrogen dioxide and particulate levels exceeded our objective levels.
You can download reports from our recent reviews here.
Results of the 2006 review
We completed our third review and assessment in July 2006, where we completed our Updating and Screening Assessment.
Below is a summary of the results.
Carbon monoxide, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, lead and sulphur dioxide
The levels of these pollutants were not significant in the local area. Therefore, we did not progress beyond the Updating and Screening Assessment for these pollutants.
Nitrogen dioxide
There is a risk of the annual mean objective being exceeded across many parts of the Borough. This is consistent with our existing AQMAs and Action Plan.
Particles PM10
There is currently a risk of the annual mean objective being exceeded across parts of the Borough close to busy roads.
There is also a risk of the objective levels being exceeded across parts of the Borough by 2010. However, we are not required to undertake action at this time, other than to note it for long term planning purposes.
Actions from the review
As a result of these findings we will maintain the designated AQMAs and continue the programme of monitoring. We will consider further monitoring in locations where pollutant sources are known to be an issue.
As there are no new pollutants that are in danger of exceeding objective levels, there is no need to amend the current AQMAs.
Progress reports
We are required to produce a report detailing monitoring results in the years when we are not undertaking a review and assessment.
We produced an Air Quality Progress report in 2005.