Agenda item
Air Quality Update 2017 - Information Report
Minutes:
The Board received an Information Report - Air Quality Update 2017, the report provided an update on air quality, following recent national developments; which included the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Air Quality Action Plan.
The Technical Services Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) introduced the report and in doing so informed Members that District Council’s had a duty to review and assess local air quality within their districts against a set of health based objectives.
Under European Union (EU) Directives the United Kingdom (UK) was required to comply with those objectives by 2015 and Defra had published the National Action Plan to demonstrate to the EU how the UK intended to comply. In the National Action Plan, six areas were required to put in place Clean Air Zones (CAZ); these were London, Birmingham, Leeds, Southampton, Derby and Nottingham.
The current National Action Plan focused on implementing CAZs in an additional 20 local authorities (Worcestershire authorities were not included).
The Local Air Quality Management process (LAQM) was the local authority role with air quality, as set out in Part IV of the Environment Act 1995; and subsequent Technical Guidance and Policy documents. There were a number of health based objectives for pollutants but for Worcestershire it was nitrogen dioxide which was the pollutant of concern.
The objectives for nitrogen dioxide were an annual average of 40 microgrammes per metre cubed for a residential property or school and a one-hour average of 200 microgrammes per metre cubed for a property where someone would realistically spend an hour, such as the outdoor seating area of a café or a playground.
The Technical Services Manager, WRS, continued and informed Members that WRS reported on the current situation, annually to Defra, on behalf of all districts.
Where a breach of the objective had been identified there was a requirement for the local authority to declare an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA). WRS monitored air quality around the district and where an area of concern was identified an assessment was carried out. Following declaration, there was a requirement to produce an action plan, to update that plan with progress and to report to Defra annually.
There were currently 10 AQMA’s in Worcestershire and a Countywide Air Quality Action Plan which covered all but one of these.
The focus of recent Defra Guidance to local authorities was aimed at delivering the measures to improve air quality included in their local Action Plans.
The Technical Services Manager, WRS, drew Members’ attention to pages 48 to 50 in the report, as this provided Members with an update on each of their local areas.
The Technical Services Manager, WRS, responded to questions from Members and briefly explained that an exceedance was where for a period of time the concentration of an individual pollutant(s) was higher than that set out in the Air Quality Standards. Exceedances were reported annually, but those exceedances only related to a relevant receptor, such as a residential dwelling. Levels above the standard where there were no residential properties, such as fields or industrial units, would not represent an exceedance of the standard.
RESOLVED:
a) that the Information Report - Air Quality Update 2017, be noted; and
b) that Members use the contents of the report, to report the relevant information to their Members at each partner authority.
Supporting documents:
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