Agenda item

Report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing to follow

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing that provided information about the Public Health Annual Report 2018/19 (PHAR) on the issue of Air Quality in Sefton; and advising that the PHAR was the independent annual report of the Director of Public Health and was a statutory duty.

The report indicated that the PHAR was an independent report on one or several aspects of health in the local population; that in recent years, PHARs had increasingly been used as an advocacy tool, for example, to highlight specific population health priorities and generate momentum for change and to draw attention towards the needs of specific groups, and to raise the profile of preventative approaches to improving population health; and that the PHAR for 2018/19 focused on the issue of air quality.

The report advised that the issue of air quality was selected for the reasons:

·       Health problems caused by air pollution are falling in Sefton as air quality improves but this remained a significant population health issue

·       Improving air quality was an ongoing top priority for Sefton Council and for many residents, particularly those living in or close to air quality management areas in the south of the borough. At the same time, that awareness-raising activity was needed elsewhere in Sefton

·       Sefton Council had put in place a wide range of measures to improve air quality, often ahead of other local authority areas, but this type of work was not always visible

·       Nationally, air quality had become more high profile both in the media and in national policy following publication of the National Clean Air Strategy in 2019.

Following positive feedback on the use of a film format for last year’s PHAR, a decision was taken by the Air Quality Cabinet Members Reference Group, to us the same format this year; and the Committee watched the film during the meeting. The film highlighted the following:

·       Why Air Pollution and Health?

·       What do we mean by air quality and what is ‘air pollution’?

·       Where does pollution come from?

·       It’s not just the great outdoors…

·       What happens when we breathe polluted air?

·       How big a problem is air pollution for Sefton?

·       What is air quality like in Sefton?

·       Protect yourself and your family

·       So, what is the Council doing to tackle air pollution?

·       What can you do (walking and cycling)?

·       What can you do (drivers)?

·       What’s next (our goals)?

·       Who are the other key people we need to work with?

·       Calls to action

The report concluded that in the context of continuing work to develop a detailed proposal for a Sefton Clean Air Zone, the PHAR was a valuable resource to help local people understand the scale, nature and causes of air pollution in Sefton and why a clean air zone was being considered.

The Committee’s attention was also drawn to a more detailed ‘Factfile’, Air Quality and Health, which accompanied the animation and provided additional information and resources to help people and organisations understand the issue of air pollution in Sefton and the changes they could make. The animation and pdf Factfile are available at: www.sefton.gov.uk/phar.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the PHAR and its future use be supported.