Air Quality Planning

All local authorities have statutory duties to undertake local air quality management (LAQM) under the Environment Act 1995.

We are required to carry our regular review and assessments of air quality in their area to compare it against the standards and objectives in the National Air Quality Strategy. In areas where it is found that the air quality objectives are unlikely to be met, the authority must declare Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) and prepare and implement action plans to tackle the problem.

Review and Assessment

Under the Environment Act 1995 and subsequent regulations, local authorities are required to review and assess air quality in their area from time to time. The number of reviews necessary depends on the likelihood of achieving the objectives.

For the first round of air quality review and assessment, there are four components.

The components were: Stages 1 to 3; and Stage 4 and Action Plans

Stage Four Review and Assessment

Further accurate and detailed assessment of both current and future air quality. Should concentrate on areas where the Stage 3 assessment indicated exceedences of the objectives are likely.
Understand contributions from traffic, industrial, airports, domestic and background sources.
Assess a range of scenarios to improve air quality and reduce or eliminate the risk of air quality objectives being exceeded. This has helped to inform the Action Plan.
Identify the geographical boundaries of any exceedences in the scenarios.