Agenda

Councillor Routley asked:

What plans do you have in place to monitor and alleviate pollution levels within Langstone and surrounding areas?

Councillor Truman responded:

I would refer Councillor Routley to my detailed response to his question about air quality monitoring at the last Council meeting. In relation to Langstone and Llanmartin, we do not currently undertake any diffusion tube monitoring as they are not areas of concern. However, we review our monitoring locations annually and may be able to consider whether a monitoring location can be supported in these areas as from January 2022.  

We currently undertake monitoring in areas that have a history of multiple factors that contribute to air quality being a concern that warrants further investigation. Typically all of these factors are present which can give rise to the air quality objective (AQO) for nitrogen dioxide (40ug/m3 annual average concentration at sample location) potentially being breached. Significant factors are the presence of street canyons where dispersal of emissions can be impeded, heavily trafficked roads, and stationary traffic with engines running; usually all these factors are present at sites we look at.

Annually we review the sites of approximately 70 locations that we monitor. Where we are satisfied that at least 5 years of data has been gathered which shows no trend towards breaching the AQO, then we are able to consider redeploying the diffusion tubes to new locations of concern that we have identified or been made aware of.

We have no alleviation plans for Langstone and the surrounding areas as there are no identified problems in this locality currently. The only exception to this being the M4 corridor where a 50mph speed limit is in force in order to reduce vehicle emission volumes.

The M4 intervention by WAG may have contributed to the observed improvements in nitrogen dioxide levels NCC have observed in areas such as the St Julians Air Quality Management Area (AQMA); the AQMA for St Julians has been identified for revocation by NCC & WAG later this year.