Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director (Resident Services and Climate Change)

The Environmental Protection Officer introduced the report and shared a presentation which is attached to these minutes. The Annual Status report and air quality strategy ran side by side. The former looked at current air quality levels which the Council had to monitor and report to DEFRA and those air quality levels were assessed against limit values in the Environment Act 1995; if they were breached then an Air Quality Action Area would need to be declared. The Environmental Health team regularly monitored levels across the borough for both particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide so that improvements could be made to reduce them. The Annual Status report included actions and the strategy developed those actions. Welwyn Hatfield did not have any Air Quality Action Areas. The latest Annual Status report was currently being reviewed by the senior management team. 2020 monitoring data showed that Welwyn Hatfield was already meeting its target for 2040; nevertheless the Council sought to continue to make improvements.

A significant potential improvement would be a smoke control area either covering the whole of the borough or specific areas; this would not cover bonfires in residents’ gardens but would look at issues such as smoke from people’s chimneys ie the use of open fires and wood burning stoves etc. This would require resources for evaluation, implementation (including grants for expenditure incurred in the adaptation of fireplaces in old homes) and enforcement. The current energy crisis meant some people were burning wood and other items as they were unable to afford heating using gas or electricity and so enforcement would need to be carefully considered.

 Next steps were the review and approval of the air quality strategy, implementation of proposed air quality reduction measures, and working with the Herts and Beds Air Quality Network and collaborating with Hertfordshire County Council: Welwyn Hatfield was the first of these local authorities to have completed its air quality strategy which would be shared with them.

A member reflected on increased traffic levels caused by delivery firms. Officers advised that air quality monitoring was effectively an annual process. The Council had two automatic air quality analysers which were expensive and which it had secured funding for; installing them was difficult so it also used 51 diffusion tubes to monitor other locations. While delivery drivers would have an impact on traffic, it was difficult to quantify this as air quality monitoring was for a yearly average.

A member asked if hotspots such as the A1(M) were looked at in detail. Officers said the two analysers were located in Hatfield in West View and the Great North Road because they used real-time data and high levels had been recorded there using diffusion tubes. The tubes were used as screening in areas where it was likely to be busy and when low results were reported, DEFRA’s expectation was that they would be moved. If there were elevated levels, additional tubes would be put in place and depending on how high those were, moving an existing analyser (which had significant cost impacts at around £15,000) could be considered, or funding for a further analyser. All the results were analysed and the diffusion tubes’ locations were changed regularly.

With reference to a smoke control area, a member asked if it was known how many open fires were in use. The Council did not have this data but the Environmental Protection Officer worked with Planning and so was aware when applications were made to install a flue; there were not many of these, probably because there were currently a number of applications for air source heat pumps. There was not evidence that wood burning was a significant issue although it was difficult to tell without a smoke control area, as complaining about a statutory nuisance caused by a fire odour (which was how people could complain about it now) could be daunting and meant going through a process.    

A member asked if monitoring outside schools took place, as was the case in London. Officers replied that in 2020 six diffusion tubes had been placed outside three schools which remained in place and so had been included in monitoring data for the last four years. Anti-idling schemes appeared unpopular with parents who drove their children to school.  

RESOLVED

CBCP:

a)    Noted and approved the Air Quality Strategy set out in Appendix A of the report; and

b)       Recommended to Cabinet the approval of the Air Quality Strategy.