Issue - meetings

Report of the Assistant Director - Highways and Public Protection

The Committee considered the report of the Assistant Director - Highways and Public Protection that updated on local air quality management activities and improvement actions underway in Sefton during 2024.

The report indicated that the Environment Act 1995 (the Act) placed a statutory duty on all Local Authorities to regularly review and assess air quality in their areas and produce a yearly Air Quality Annual Status Report (ASR) and implement actions/interventions to improve air quality where poor air quality existed; that evidence had shown that certain atmospheric pollutants were linked to poor health; that the Air Quality Regulations made under the Act specified the pollutants that must be considered against set standards and objectives, referred to as National Air Quality Standard (NAQS) Objectives; and Table 1 in the report detailed the 2 pollutants that were of concern in Sefton, namely Nitrogen Dioxide and Particulate Matter PM₁₀.

The report also detailed that where monitoring/modelling showed an exceedance of the NAQS, an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) must be declared by the Local Authority; that through air pollution monitoring and modelling four localised areas in South Sefton had been identified where levels of Nitrogen Dioxide had exceeded or were close to the annual average limit of 40 µg/m³; and that AQMA’s had been declared in the four locations at:

• Princess Way, Seaforth
• Millers Bridge, Bootle
• Crosby Road North/South Road, Waterloo
• Hawthorne Road/Church Road junction, Litherland

The report also indicated that to provide accurate data on pollution levels in Sefton and as part of ongoing duties, officers continued to undertake extensive air pollution monitoring using both DEFRA approved real time automatic monitoring systems and diffusion tubes which provided average annual levels; and that Sefton operated one of the largest monitoring networks in the City Region with officers consistently reviewing monitoring locations and activities to ensure the air quality situation in the borough was effectively captured.

The report also provided information on:

·       Results of particulate matter and NO2 monitoring

·       A summary of monitoring results in 2024

·       Actions to improve air quality which included School Streets air quality monitoring, engagement with HGV fleet operators, SCOOT (Split Cycle and Offset Optimisation Technique) Validation and Strategy Development Project, Millers Bridge Study – PhD Student Sponsorship, Emissions Enforcement - Joint  Sefton/DVSA emissions monitoring enforcement project and the Clean Air Plan / Air Quality Action Plan

The report concluded that air quality in the majority of Sefton was within NAQS, but that the main on-going priority in Sefton for the coming years was to fully understand the effects that the predicted increase in HGVs due to port expansion would have on air quality and how this could be mitigated, and that efforts would be focussed on bringing forward air quality improvements in the AQMAs to ensure appropriate targeted measures were developed to tackle this problem.

The Committee also received a presentation from Greg Martin, Environmental Health and Licensing Service Manager on local air quality management activities/actions in Sefton during 2024. The presentation provided information on:

·       Local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48