The Committee will recall that at its July 6, 2010 meeting the draft Air Quality Strategy was considered ahead of its submission to Cabinet. The item concluded with the Committee recommending that its comments were taken on board by the Cabinet member. The strategy has now been included on the Cabinet agenda for its September 13, 2011 meeting.
In conjunction to this on June 16, 2011 councillors Nigel Carter and Alan Hill, acting as representatives of the ICT Task Group, met with the ICT Programme Manager for a one-off review of the ICT Air Quality Project. As part of this exercise the two suppliers of the pollution monitoring systems were found to not meet government ‘CoCo’ data requirements, set to ensure that the data was transferred securely. Concern was raised by the members that the approach to data monitoring had not yet been harmonised, and ICT was unaware of all Wiltshire areas subject to air quality monitoring. During this exercise the members agreed that they would refer their concerns to the Environment Select Committee.
Recognising that Cabinet is shortly to be asked to endorse the Air Quality Strategy, the recommendation to emerge from the ICT Scrutiny Task Group and the historic interest of the committee towards air quality, the Cabinet member has been invited to attend the meeting to be given an opportunity to respond to the issues raised and any other subsequent questions that the Committee may have.
Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection Services was in attendance to present a verbal update on the Air Quality Strategy ahead of its submission to Cabinet on 13 September 2011.
Clarification was provided that feedback received from previous Committee scrutiny had been fed into the revised strategy document. A copy of the revised strategy would be presented to the Committee at its next meeting in September for consideration.
The Cabinet Member requested that the Committee take into consideration several key points as follows:
· Air quality was an emotive issue and a complex and technical area. With this in mind the revised strategy would be simplified into distinct areas as follows:
o Part 1 - To outline in simple terms the complexities of Air Quality (in line with guidance from the DEFRA publication).
o Part 2 – To provide more detailed technical.
o Part 3 – To provide details of the proposed strategy itself.
o Part 4 – Action Plan arising from the Air Quality Strategy.
· There was a desire to install a ‘traffic light’ system on the Council’s website that would allow monitoring of air quality figures across the County in real time. A pilot scheme was currently in place within Salisbury.
· There would be budgetary implications in relation to the equipment required with monitoring stations equating to approximately £45k each with an additional cost of approximately £4k to update systems.
Whilst taking into consideration the information provided, the Cabinet Member requested that the Committee upon consideration of the Strategy also consider whether Part 4 of the Strategy document may be better placed as a separate document in its own right.
Ensuing discussion included that there was a need for behavioural change within the wider community including the use of vehicular transport through problematic areas where the Council had little or no control.
The Cabinet member recognised that the behaviour of residents across the county was also required to ensure better air quality but stressed the importance of a strategy to ensure the local authority was doing what it could to address the problem itself. Localised air quality plans would be developed following approval of the Strategy.
There were several ‘hot spot’ areas within Wiltshire that were recognised as having poor air quality, including Bradford-on-Avon, Devizes, Calne and Salisbury. Discussions continued with these local communities to find the most appropriate avenue to reduce the poor air quality.
Members recognised that a more joined up approach across the Council was required to continue to address poor air quality and this would be included within the revised strategy.
Members also questioned whether the air quality limit values for nitrogen dioxide issued by DEFRA were likely to impact on Wiltshire Council in the future. The Cabinet Member confirmed that further investigation in this area would be undertaken and findings reported back to the Committee accordingly.
The Committee discussed areas in which poor air quality could be reduced which included the use of park and ride initiatives. Evidence had shown that the park and ride site within Salisbury had resulted in improved air quality within this area.
Upon taking the Committee’s considerations into account, the Cabinet Member clarified that although Wiltshire Council had several hotspots of poor air quality around the County, air quality as a whole for Wiltshire was reasonable compared to many other areas across the country.
Resolved:
1) To thank the Cabinet member for his attendance.
1) That the Committee would receive the revised Air Quality Strategy document at its meeting in September 2011; where it will also determine wheter part 4 of the strategy may be better placed as an individual document of its own right.