Agenda item

The Technical Services Manager introduced the information report and stated that there was a lot happening in the air quality regime. Members were informed that 2022 had proved to be a busy year in terms of air quality and the purpose of this report was to provide Board Members with an update as to the legislative changes and the various work streams currently taking place.

Environment Act 2021

The Act arrived on the statue book in January which hailed 2 significant changes that impacted on WRS work on behalf of its partners.

Part 1 established the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which had their head office locally at Worcestershire County Council.  The head office would be the new watchdog that oversaw the performance of all UK regulators including the Government (post Brexit). The focus for Local Authorities (LA’s) would be around serious failure to comply with Environmental Law. The OEP was also outward facing in terms of complaints and members of the public could also raise grievances regarding a perceived or suspected breach of environmental legislation.

Part 2 amended the present Local Authority Air Quality Management Regime (LAQM) and broadened the statutory responsibility for delivering air quality improvement in the areas, as detailed on page 59 of the main agenda report.

In terms of statutory reporting a further tightening had been introduced to ensure that authorities adhered to the timeframes (annual status reports, detailed assessments, and declarations of air quality management areas) and their locally set deadlines for air quality action planning. This came with the threat of ministerial directions should respective authorities fail to adhere to DEFRA’s progressive deadlines.

Process of AQAP development must be a collaborative process with AQ partners. (County Council, National Highways), all engaging proactively.

WRS had submitted completed Annual Status Reporting for 2022 on schedule during June and had since received positive feedback following DEFRA review for all partners. However, the ministry made observations in relation to the age of the current Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP 2013,) and a recommendation was made that a review would be necessary in the next 12 months.

WRS had acted on this recommendation and had brought together key individuals to form a new county-wide officers’ group that would collaborate on developing a new AQAP.

Defra Grant Scheme 2022

As detailed on page 60 of the main agenda report, 2022’s grant scheme was split in two halves this year and LOT 2 had provided WRS with the opportunity to bid for funding for this scheme. WRS would be submitting a £276,000 bid to purchase and run 24 monitoring stations for 4 years.  This would enable WRS to monitor any successes with work being actively monitored around schools and identified high risk areas. Members were asked to note that log burners were included in air quality.

Members commented that they were pleased to see that a lot was happening in the air quality regime and were delighted to receive the information report. Councillor B. Nielsen Malvern Hills District Council briefly quoted the American Medical Journal information with regard to pollution levels being limit of 5 micrograms per cubic metre and the effect on health that this was having.

The Technical Services Officer responded to several questions raised by Board Members; and Board Members raised some concerns with regard to the following: -

·         Meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline limit of 5 micrograms per cubic metre, as the current United Kingdom (UK) was 20 micrograms per cubic metre.

·         Where would the Enhanced Monitoring Stations be located.

·         Air pollution having a huge contributary factor for the NHS, with lung disease rising.

The Technical Services Manager further informed Members that there had been a positive response from the Steering Group and that the Director of Public Health’s team had engaged for a while with his team.  He would endeavor to provide the Board with updates at future Board meetings.

Monitoring would take place across the County but would focus initially where there were bigger issues and currently Worcester City had poor quality issues; areas of deprivation would also be included. To go beyond the Environment Act 2021 could prove difficult, but we were required to do certain things.  If a partner authority required something more specific, they could talk to WRS officers, but this would be dependent on funding and staffing levels allowing additional work to be carried out. 

In response to further questions from Members with regard to what powers and how these could be imposed by local authorities; the Technical Services Manager, WRS, drew Members’ attention to Part 2 of the Environment Act 2021, as detailed on page 59 of the main agenda report. 

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, responded to further questions with regards to congestion and problem areas (e.g. removing buses or closing car parks); Members asked how radical could solutions be?

Members were informed that it would be a case of looking at monitoring and going back to the science and the data obtained; then try and solve the issues with single / multi actions.

The Head of Regulatory Services reiterated that officers were working well with their county council colleagues and that it was important that these requirements were taken forward in a spirit of partnership working.  With the new regime under the new Act and with a new agency in the Office for Environmental Protection, officers would not know how the whole thing would work until the Agency took on some of the challenges it would face.  Given the new Agency was supposed to hold bodies to account, how it would consider the difficult financial environment faced by local authorities was something yet to be understood.