Agenda item

The Air Quality Annual Update report was introduced by the Environmental Health Manager.

SKDC declared an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in 2013 encompassing the main roads in the town centre of Grantham, with the main pollutant of concern being Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). Given the imposition of the AQMA, an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) was required to be produced every five years.

Implementation of the actions contained within the existing AQAP were monitored as part of an Annual Air Quality Status Report (ASR) which the Council was required to produce.

The 2024 ASR identified that during 2023 there were no exceedances of the one hour mean objective when using annual mean as a proxy for hourly mean. This was positive and supported the overall improvement in air quality.

The ASR reported that there was compliance with the annual mean objective for NO2 at all fifty-eight passive monitoring tubes across the thirty-five monitoring locations. This was a continuing trend since 2019.

The highest reported concentration of NO2 was at diffusion tube monitoring

location SK33,34, located on A607 Manthorpe Road, Grantham, which was within 10% of exceedance. It had shown an overall decline in concentrations

between 2022- 2023 at this site in comparison to the previous year’s data.

Within the ‘conclusions and priorities’ section of the 2024 ASR report, the

recommendation was made that SKDC continues to use the passive monitoring network to monitor air quality levels, and to ensure that compliance was maintained throughout the District.

The report recommended two key priorities (in order to comply with the

Air Quality Strategy (AQS) objectives) - 

• Continue passive monitoring within the AQMA to ensure the NO2

concentration remains below 40 ?g/m3.

• Continue to consider amending AQMA No.6 to remove the pollution

declaration of 1- hour NO2 mean exceedances and potential revocation of

the AQMA’.

During discussions, Members commented on the following:

-       Whether there were consequential costs of removing the pollution declaration of 1- hour NO2 mean exceedances, as recommended by the report. It was confirmed that this had been recommended by the Department for Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and there was no additional cost for actioning this.

-       Why there was no data set recorded for October. It was confirmed this was because the data set had been lost in transit. The November data set was currently being reviewed.

-       Whether an additional testing tube could be explored at monitoring location SK33,34 given that this site produced the highest concentration of NO2. The Environmental Health Manager confirmed this could be considered.

-       Confirmation was sought regarding the sensitivity of the test equipment used. A Member feared whether seasonal, atmospheric changes could impact the test results. It was confirmed that the methodology of using the annual mean accounted for seasonal, atmospheric changes, however, the equipment would not have been sensitive enough to pick this up anyway.

-       A Member queried whether the test areas could be expanded within their Ward. It was confirmed that the test areas had previously undertaken a review and there were not currently plans to extend further.

-       Methods of enforcement to tackle significant polluters was queried within the AQAP. The Head of Public Protection confirmed that targeted approaches for localized issues could be made without the AQAP.

-       With this in mind, it was identified that a significant polluter was stationary taxis with their engine’s running. It was queried whether it could be included within taxi licenses issued by SKDC for the engines to be turned off when the taxis are stationary. It was suggested that this was a matter for the Licensing Committee process.

-       The process for raising concerns relating to the A1 air pollution. It was advised to approach Environmental Health. 

-       It was queried why the report focuses on the pollution level of NO2, rather than other pollutants such as Sulfur Dioxide, PM10, or PM2.5. It was confirmed that this was because there were no areas within the district where there were exceeding levels of those pollutants.

-       The Leader of the Council highlighted quarries within SKDC to be of relevance and the Head of Public Protection clarified that such quarries were subject to regulation and required permits.

-       Attention was drawn to the Clean Air Lincolnshire Website.

The Air Quality Annual Update report was noted by the Committee.