Air pollution and air quality management

The Environment Act 1995 requires local authorities to review local air quality against a specific list of potential pollutants. The Government requires that the review is carried out in a number of stages.

We completed the third stage of the review process in December 2000. This identified that a small area of the borough was likely to exceed the target levels set for nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant which is created by combustion processes and in particular motor vehicles.

As a result we declared two Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA's).

After declaring AQMA's we are required to carry out further investigation into the cause of the pollution. This investigation is the 4th stage of the review process and it is to:

confirm that the original decisions were correct
determine whether the AQMA's should be modified and
determine the source of the pollution and the improvements needed (this process is called apportionment).

The Updating and Screening Review of Air Quality for 2006 has now been completed. The report concludes that all the air quality objectives will be met by the relevant dates except in the current Air Quality Management Areas.

However, the EU annual average limit value (Stage 2) for particulate matter may be exceeded at some locations within the borough, close to busy roads and junctions in 2010.

Air pollution and air quality management

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