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Agenda item

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

Decision:

There was one question submitted by a member of the public in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.10(a).

 

The Chair invited Ms Deolinda Eltringham to present her question to Councillor Sean Prendergast, Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health.

 

Minutes:

Audio recording – 22:23

 

There was one question submitted by a member of the public in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.10(a).

 

The Chair invited Ms Deolinda Eltringham to present her question to Councillor Sean Prendergast, Executive Member for Housing and Environmental Health. Her question was as follows:

 

“‘Is there a reason why so many air quality monitoring stations are not being used in the NHDC area? They are: North Herts Baldock -1, North Herts Baldock -2, North Herts Baldock Roadside, North Herts Breechwood Green, North Herts Hitchin Library, North Herts Royston. All of these are still showing as “Closed” and no results available on the “All Herts and Beds Air Quality” data from the local air monitoring stations. We will never know the full picture of how bad the true air pollution problem is until we monitor widely and quantify the problem.’”

 

Councillor Sean Prendergast responded as follows:

 

“Thank you for attending council tonight and for your question.

 

Some members and indeed residents in our community may not be aware that all local authorities have a statutory duty to monitor and assess local air quality. In terms of a strategy for air quality monitoring and assessment, the Local Authority is required to continually monitor and assess local air quality across the district.

What this means in practice, is that in time we build up a picture of where air pollution hot spots are located, usually near busy road junctions or roads with congested traffic, meaning that we as a local authority concentrate our monitoring resources in locations that represent those hotspots.

 

Part of the process of continuing to review local air quality is to build up a picture across the district of where air pollution levels are highest, and within margins approaching or in exceedance of statutory air quality objectives.

 

From the data collected, there is no evidence that pollution levels at these locations are approaching or near air pollution objective levels, and decisions have been made in the past to concentrate monitoring resources on areas where pollution levels are higher or may approach objective levels.

 

For example, results from the continuous monitor in the Hitchin Stevenage Road air quality management areas have reduced from 50 microgrammes per metre cubed in 2016, to 37 microgrammes per metre cubed in 2020, where the objective is 40.

 

These locations have been shown as locations with no significant risk of increased pollution levels.

 

The regulations make clear, that Local Authorities are expected to monitor where air pollution levels are at, or likely to exceed the Government’s stated threshold limits. The sites mentioned were recorded as being, and still are significantly below objective levels, and in line with Government Policy on best value, these sites were made redundant at least 7 years ago.

 

Members of this Council will be aware that the joint administration declared a climate emergency in May 2019 and since then we have already actioned the:

 

·         Introduction of subsidised licensing fees for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles that use clean fuel.

·         The continued replacement of council vehicles with ultra-low or zero emission vehicles

·         Commissioned the Herts energy advice tool app to help residents increase energy efficiency in their homes

·         The Conversion of floodlighting on Norton Common in Letchworth from halogen to LED lighting, which will cut energy use by 50%.

·         Launched a Plastic Free North Herts Campaign and helped promote businesses in the district who have achieved a plastic free status.

 

This is just a snapshot of what we have achieved so far and we will continue to work with community groups and residents to further improve the environment of our district.  However we must acknowledge the reality of air pollution as a real problem that exists everywhere including in this district and we will continue to take bold steps to create a healthy environment for our children and vulnerable members of our community. 

 

We must look at further measures to improve air quality such as the possibility of no idling areas, working towards a better cycle network in the district, more electrical charging points. 

 

We are still actively working with HCC & others to try to encourage more people to take up electric vehicles actively and we need to encourage the County Council to review and address traffic congestion hotspots, so that this too can potentially help to reduce traffic air pollution, .  Be assured that we will continue to actively explore opportunities to help solve the climate emergency.

 

Air pollution is not inevitable.  Any reductions in air pollution that we make will lead to health improvements for us all.  If we all do our bit, we can have cleaner air.”

 

Ms Deolina Eltringham asked a supplementary question as follows: “Air quality had improved from when monitoring began in 2020 due to Covid restrictions resulting in traffic reduction across the UK – air pollution measurements taken in 2020 and 2021 are aberrations from historical norms and the UK government warns against use of such data. UK government traffic reporting shows a significant drop in 2020 that is clearly not consistent with normal trends where vehicle miles travelled in Britain had year on year growth between 2010-19, until a sharp decrease in 2020 bringing figures lower than 2010. To say traffic has fallen would misconstrue the overall picture. Measurements in 2020 should be considered a target, not a benchmark; would the Council consider a review of its monitoring station placement and increase the number of stations across the areas of greater traffic and include residential areas?”

 

Councillor Sean Prendergast responded: “Monitoring stations were reviewed on an annual basis and active locations were based on hotspots of traffic activity and the resources available. If the hotspots changed the monitoring stations would change as necessary.”

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