To receive a full presentation on Air Quality from Brett Warren - Senior Environmental Health Officer and Gary Tomsett – Public Protection Team Leader Environmental Control and Protection.
Minutes:
The Chairman invited Brett Warren, Senior Environmental Health Officer and Gary Tomsett, Public Protection Team Leader, Environmental Control and Protection to give a presentation on air quality.
The officer explained that air pollution was transboundary and action to manage and improve air quality in the UK had been driven by both international agreements and EU legislation, as well as national legislation. The Government had been clear that it had no plans to change limit values and targets for air quality following Brexit.
The local air quality management regime in each of the four UK countries required every district and unitary authority to regularly review and assess air quality in their areas.
The aim of the reviews was to identify whether national objectives had been, or would be, achieved at relevant locations, by an applicable date. Wiltshire Council had a statutory duty to declare an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and prepare an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) where national objectives were not met or were at risk of not being met.
Wiltshire’s Air Quality Strategy was adopted by full council in 2019 and set out key points that it was hoped could be achieved. One of the main reasons for tackling air quality was health and wellbeing, as the Royal College of Physicians estimated that 40,000 people died due to air pollution in the UK every year.
In Wiltshire problems tended to occur in narrower streets and canyons (where high sided buildings line the street) especially where those streets were on hills and engines were straining. Herd Street in Marlborough was an example.
Techniques currently used to monitor air quality were diffusion tubes and Osiris units (fine particulate monitors). Nitrogen Dioxide trends in Marlborough were shown to the meeting, Herd Street was the current concern. COVID-19 and the lockdowns would affect 2020 air quality figures and all areas should be below the objective.
The Air Quality team was looking at different ways of monitoring air quality and there were many electronic gadgets coming to the market that could be utilised. Citizen science might also be able to used.
In Herd Street in Marlborough a 29% reduction in Nitrogen Dioxide was required to meet the objective. For Herd Street and other areas that required improvement the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) looked at how to achieve this:
· Measures needed to be evidence based and quantified in terms of their impact on the necessary reduction for each pollutant required to meet our objectives.
· This also required:
o Identifications of key partners who can contribute to measures – both core and non-core.
o Modelling of proposed measures and their impact on AQ.
o Identification and adoption of measures as part of the action plan
o Monitoring and evaluation of success
Air Quality actions in practice included measures such as:
· Park & Ride
· Variable message signing
· Real time passenger information
· People Friendly Streets - rat runs removed
· Reduction in parking
· Reduction in on street parking
· Charging points
· Home vehicle charge infrastructure
· Public Transport infrastructure
· Cycle & walking infrastructure
· Sustainable development - energy efficient
· Community involvement was also important.
Air Quality figures and information could be found at https://www.wiltshireairquality.org.uk/. Residents could sign up for a ‘Know and Respond’ text alert system.
In response to questions the officer stated that fine particulates were monitored using the Osiris unit and the results from that could be found online on the Air Quality website. Through traffic would be looked at under the AQAP and under transport planning. Modelling would be undertaken to look at transport patterns and assess how any changes (such as one-way systems being implemented) would affect those patterns.
Councillors hoped that the board and the Air Quality team could work together on solutions for Marlborough and that an Air Quality group could be set up. Councillors also hoped that any planned road works might be undertaken overnight, in order to reduce queuing traffic. Officers acknowledged that this was a sensible measure and would look at the possibility.
The Chairman thanked the officers for their presentation.