Pollution control - air quality

What is air quality?

Air quality is a measure of how good or poor our air is in terms of the type and quantity of pollutants contained within it. Poor air quality can affect peoples' health, causing problems such as heart disease and breathing problems. Up to 24,000 people per year die prematurely because of its effects (The Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, Working Together for Clean Air).

Effects of Air Pollution on health

A variety of air pollutants have known or suspected harmful effects on human health and the environment. In most areas of Europe, these pollutants are principally the products of combustion from space heating, power generation or from motor vehicle traffic. Pollutants from these sources may not only prove a problem in the immediate vicinity of these sources but can travel long distances, chemically reacting in the atmosphere to produce secondary pollutants such as acid rain or ozone. More information may be found at the UK Air Quality Archive or the DEFRA website

Air Quality & Environmental Health's Pollution Team

We have officers working either directly or indirectly in the area of air quality issues which include:

Coordinating action between MBC and KCC departments which relate to air quality.
Coordinating action in the Maidstone Borough Air Quality Management Area(s).
Carrying out district wide review and assessment of air quality.
Measuring and monitoring air pollution levels.
Inspecting industrial sources of air pollution which are prescribed for licensing controls under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 and the Solvent Emmissions directive.
Inspecting and giving advise on the new Smokefree legislation.
Investigating air pollution complaints concerning:

Local Air Quality Management - monitoring and our role

Maidstone council has two continuous air quality monitoring stations: one in the town centre and one in a rural location at Detling. We also use diffusion tubes deployed around the borough and computer modelling to assess the air quality situation.

Our statutory duty

Part IV of the Environment Act, 1995, places a statutory duty on local authorities to periodically review and assess the air quality within their area. This involves consideration of the present and likely future air quality against air quality standards and objectives for six key pollutants: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particles, benezene, 1,3 butadiene and sulphur dioxide. Each round of Review and Assessment involves an initial assessment followed up by various different types of other assessments and reports (depending on the data obtained) over an approximately 3-4 year cycle

[1] DoE (1997) The United Kingdom Nation Air Quality Strategy The Stationery Office

History of Review and Assessment in the Borough

First round of Review and Assessment

This was completed in 2002 and culminated in the declaration of an Air Quality Management Area between junctions 6 and 7 on the M20. A Further Assessment was submitted to & approved by Defra in May 2002 in conjunction with an Air Quality Action Plan which was submitted and approved between 2003-04.

Action Plan progress reports have been submitted annually since May 2005.The Air Quality Action Plan approved in May 2004 seeks to propose and deliver measures that will work towards achieving a reduction in emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) around this area of the M20.

Second round of Review and Assessment

The Update and Screening Assessment, completed in May 2003, concluded that the Air Quality Objective (AQO) for nitrogen dioxide and fine particles was unlikely to be met in certain parts of Maidstone Town Centre. The Detailed Assessment, carried out on behalf of Maidstone Borough Council, used monitoring and dispersion modelling to determine whether the AQO for nitrogen dioxide and fine particles would be exceeded in certain parts of Maidstone Town Centre. The Detailed Assessment concluded that the AQO would not be met and defined the extent and magnitude of the exceedences. As a result of the findings of the Detailed Assessment, Maidstone Borough Council's second Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) was declared in January 2005. In order to confirm the findings of the Detailed Assessment and to calculate more accurately how much of an improvement in air quality would be needed to deliver the air quality objectives within the AQMA, the Further Assessment was carried out and completed in February 2006. A finalised version of the Maidstone Town Centre Air Quality Action Plan has now been submitted to Defra for approval (end Feb 2007).

Third round of Review and Assessment

The results of the Updating and Screening assessment (completed in April 2006) have shown that a Detailed Assessment is required for nitrogen dioxide as a result of measured exceedences of the annual mean objective at the nearest receptors to 2 monitoring locations - Well Road and Fountain Lane.

The provisional annual PM₁₀ objective for 2010 is predicted to be exceeded at a number of busy roads and junctions assessed due to the high modelled background PM₁₀ for 2010. This will require further assessment in future air quality assessments if included in Regulations. In addition, it was recommended that monitoring be undertaken at the nearest receptor to the Loose Road/ Sutton Road junction to confirm compliance with the objective as results predicted that NO₂ annual mean concentrations were marginally below the objective. A Detailed Assessment report was submitted to Defra at the beginning of June 2007 and accepted in December 2007. The Pollution team recently produced an AQMA options report, (having consulted with various air quality experts, transport planners and other Local Authorities; and having surveyed what has been done nationally). Maidstone borough council have now decided to extend the Maidstone Town AQMA to cover the whole town conurbation (including the original M20 AQMA). View the new AQMA Order including a map of the area.

The further Assessment is due for publication in October 2009. This will be used to develop an Action plan for the AQMA. A Health Impact Assessment will be carried out out on the measures of the draft Action plan. All reports will be published by April 2010.

Fourth round of Review and Assessment

The results of the Update and Screening Assessment (completed in April 2009) are being addressed in the ongoing work of the Further Assessment in relation to the third round of review and assessment. The USA 2009 will be fully assessed following publication of the 3rd round Further Assessment, the Action Plan and Health Impact Assessment.

Local Air Quality related Reports

Relevant reports (electronic versions) can be found here as follows:

Hard copies of the above documents can also be obtained from:

Environmental Health

Pollution Control Section

Maidstone House

King Street

Maidstone

Kent ME15 6JQ

Or call 01622 602202.

Declaration of an amended Maidstone Town Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) 2008

An Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) is an air quality action zone within which:

Ways to improve air quality are actively sought, planned for and coordinated.
Ways and means of maintaining improvements in air quality are also sought, planned for and coordinated.
By declaring an AQMA the vulnerability of an area to poor air quality is recognised and ways to address the problems and help safeguard future air quality are actively sought and carried out through the implementation of an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP).

The new amended Maidstone Town AQMA boundary (detailed in appendix A - Environmental Enforcement’s AQMA Options report February 2008) includes the majority of the built-up area and M20 between Junctions 6 to 8. It is considerably larger than the identified hotspot areas. It is important to realise that the AQMA is an air quality action zone within which improvements in air quality are planned for and managed. Therefore the boundary of an AQMA may be wider than the extent of those areas where the Air Quality Objective is likely to be exceeded.

Air Pollution Forecasts

Daily updated forecasts of UK air pollution concentrations for up to 24 hours ahead can be accessed here .

Air Quality Data - What are the passed and current air pollution levels?

MBC have been monitoring Air Quality for many years and this data is used to compile the LAQM & various other background reports etc, (as listed above); and thus used to inform decisions.

Past and present Pollution levels can be accessed here .

The Kent and Medway Air Quality Partnership (KAMAQP) & The Kent and Medway Air Quality Monitoring Network (KAMAQN)

The KAMQP is an alliance between 12 of the 13 Kent & Medway LA'S which was set up in 1994 in order to support and coordinate their work on LAQM; and this alliance has lead to the creation of the KAMAQN.

The network (KAMAQN) is funded by the districts and boroughs within the county with an additional contribution from Kent County Council. The aims of the network are to promote the improvement of air quality within the region, help local authorities to meet their obligations under Environmental Regulations and maintain an accessible database of robust measurements for public reporting, research and development. The network can be accessed through a link here.

Climate Change and Air Quality

Climate change affects all of us - and we can all be part of the solution.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have compounded natural climate change by increasing carbon concentrations of certain gases (greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere, particularly carbondioxide. This legacy of emissions has produced an unprecedented rise in global average temperature over the past 100 years, with even greater and faster climate change predicted this century.

At present, just over 7 million tonnes of carbondioxide is emitted globally each year through fossil fuel use, and an additional 1.6 billion tonnes are emitted by land use change, largely by deforestation. The concentrations of green house gases in the atmosphere has now reached levels unprecedented for tens of thousands of years.

The main human influence on global climate is emissions of the key greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. These are the gases that are covered by the Kyoto Protocol. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are also powerful greenhouse gases but they are being progressively phased out under the Montreal Protocol as they also damage the stratospheric ozone layer. They are part of a longer list of greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

Each greenhouse gas has a different capacity to cause global warming, depending on its radiative properties, its molecular weight and its lifetime in the atmosphere. Its so-called global warming potential (GWP) encapsulates these. The GWP is defined as the warming influence over a set time period of a gas relative to that of carbon dioxide. A 100-year time horizon is used in the Kyoto Protocol. When the warming effect of current greenhouse gas emissions over the next 100 years is calculated, the graph shows that carbon dioxide will be responsible for about two thirds of the expected future warming.

There are things we can do that help reduce poor air quality and reduce green house gases such as reducing our car use.

Information on what Maidstone can/are doing about climate change issues may be accessed here.

Further information on climate change may be accessed here.

Air Quality and Heavy Metals

The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) have been commissioned by the Department of Environment, Farming & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to carry out routine monitoring of air and rainwater around Britain for the presence of various heavy metals and other potential pollutants. The monitoring equipment is based at our rural Detling air quality monitoring site and we have been working with CEH to maintain equipment and gather data since 2004.

What can we do to help improve air quality?

The majority of air pollution in the Maidstone Borough relates to traffic emissions, so anything we can do to avoid unnecessary journeys and relieve the strains on our local road systems is of benefit e.g. car sharing with friends and work colleagues in order to cut down journeys or using car pools such as Kent car share.
More use of Public Transport will also help relieve congestion. Public transport information may be accessed here.
Consider walking or cycling for shorter journeys - when a car engine is cold it produces 60% more pollution than when it is warmed up.
Information on pedestrian routes may be accessed here.
Information on cycle routes may be accessed here.
Efficient driving style - Rapid acceleration and heavy braking both lead to greater fuel consumption and contribute to poor air quality. Avoid idling your engine unnecessarily. It should be noted that motorists can be exposed to up to three times the level of pollution as pedestrians. This is because concentrations of pollutants are highest near the emission source, and you are driving directly in line with the vehicle in front. Change gear in good time before engine noise becomes more noticeable or before 2,500 rpm if your car has a rev counter. This saves fuel and possible damage to your engine. Drive within the speed limit: cars travelling at or above 70 mph can use up to 30% more fuel to cover the same distance as those travelling at 50 mph!
Good vehicle Maintenance - Under-inflated tyres increase fuel consumption and can be dangerous. Make sure your engine is 'in tune', badly tuned vehicles use more fuel and emit more exhaust fumes; and 90% of badly polluting vehicles can be retuned by a garage within 15 minutes. Have your vehicle regularly serviced including an emissions check.

Low Emission Strategies Partnership

Maidstone Borough Council is a member of the Low Emission Strategies (LES) Partnership.The partnership comprises a Peer Group of 15 local authorities across England working together to support local implementation of LES. LES provide a package of measures to help mitigate the transport impacts of development. Their primary aim is to accelerate the uptake of low emission fuels and technologies in and around a new development, thereby complementing other design and mitigation options, such as travel planning and the provision of public transport infrastructure. For more information visit http://www.lowemissionstrategies.org/