Agenda item

QUESTION FROM MR IAN WEBB AND MR WILLIAM MOORE TO COUNCILLOR A WOODMAN

“With reference to the upcoming agenda item, 2019 AIR QUALITY ANNUAL STATUS, is this cabinet aware that this statutory report breaks the law by being 3 months late? Is this cabinet aware that it is being asked to endorse that?

Why does this Annual Status Report fail to mention that the vehicle exhaust pollutants along Nottingham Rd, Ashby de la Zouch exceed the Government legal limits? Why does this Annual Status Report not address the increasing health risks when the present mortality rate stands at 76 Ashby persons per year due to poor air quality according to the NWLDC 2018 Annual Status Report?

In 2019. William Moore Fellow of the Royal society of Chemistry, provided a professional report to the Planning Dept of the NWLDC, applying DEFRA data that showed Nottingham Road, Ashby has air pollution far exceeding government's legal limits. Added to this, the Leicestershire County Council Director of the Environment and Transport has just issued two important air quality reports that record exactly the same problem for Ashby.  Is this cabinet aware that this 2019 ASR wrongly concludes no new area is likely to exceed air quality objectives?

Is this cabinet aware that this Council is spending several thousand pounds modelling the air quality for Nottingham Road, Ashby instead of taking more credible measurements?  All of this evidence has been previously presented to the NWLDC, yet today why is it not before this Cabinet?

We hope you would agree that this report should be deferred until it is upgraded & corrected, as there is already an external consultant employed to assess the Air Pollution in Ashby.” 

RESPONSE FROM COUNCILLOR A WOODMAN

“I would like to thank Mr Webb and Mr Moore for their question in relation to Air Quality in Ashby but specifically Nottingham Road.

I need to make it very clear that this a status report about air quality that has historically effected residential properties in the district in the 2018 calendar year and is a factual account of the data collected and is therefore not subject to change.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), who determine the methodology for statutory air quality monitoring, do provide a target date of the end of June each year for submission but there are no laws or penalties relating to not meeting this target date.

DEFRA provide councils with a template for the air quality report which only covers the monitoring of certain pollutants and locations (nitrogen dioxide and particulates (PM₁₀) primarily).  These are different to any other methods of assessing air quality carried out by others such as Public Health England or county councils. To date under this councils statutory monitoring responsibilities Ashby has not been found to have an air quality issue in relation to any effect on nearby residential properties.

I am aware that there is a live planning application for a haulage yard on Nottingham Road, which is being considered by planning officers currently. This Cabinet cannot comment upon that application but is aware that the planning officer has commissioned an independent air quality report in relation to the proposed development.

Should the commissioned report for the said development find a problem then this would be included in the air quality report published in 2020.

The statistics from Public Health England relate to 6% of the deaths in the district as a whole (in 2016 there were 896 deaths).   PHE have attributed the deaths to exposure to PM_2.5 which is not a pollutant that is measured under the air quality monitoring undertaken by the council.

Officers are more than happy to engage further to discuss the concerns raised which could include engagement with DEFRA.”

Councillor D Harrison, as Ward Member expressed his deep concerns regarding the air quality and that there had been no physical scientific measurements taken in the last 15 years.  He asked members to be cautious of signing up to a document that was inaccurate as it was compiled using a desktop exercise.  He urged members to defer the item so that more work could be undertaken to obtain a better understanding of the air quality throughout the district.

Councillor R Blunt invited Mr Moore to ask a supplementary question.

Mr Moore stated that officers should be using credible monitoring methods rather than a desktop exercise to collect data and felt that the council was contravening its own policies by not compiling physical data.