Agenda item

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Environment.

The Assistant Director Environment presented the report advising Members about the renewal of the Air Quality Strategy and asking the Committee to recommend the adoption of the strategy. The previous Air Quality Strategy had covered the period from 2009 to 2014 and an updated Strategy was therefore required.

It drew together the existing air quality work undertaken by Environmental Health and Licensing at the City Council and work driven by statutory obligations - the strategy providing a means of organising and co-ordinating it to best effect.

He responded as follows to Members’ queries:-

·         whilst there had been no recent enforcement cases in terms of prosecutions, there was strict regulation and monitoring to ensure compliance;

·         the energy from waste incinerator was not a major contributor to poor air quality in the City - traffic pollution being the greatest problem;

·         the main means of checking excess emissions from vehicles was the MOT test, although emissions could also be tested at road-side spot checks;

·         in terms of the City Council’s Fleet, a gradual transition was being made to low emission vehicles on replacement, although this would take slightly longer with regard to larger vehicles such as refuse collection lorries;

·         Stagecoach used lower emission buses and Members were advised that issues could be raised with Stagecoach senior management who attended Exeter HATOC meetings, at which any City Councillor could attend;

·         other mechanisms, such as congestion charges and work place levies, were being trialled and implemented by some authorities and reference was made to larger scale initiatives in major European cities such as Helsinki for car-less communities. It was mentioned that Cambridge was seeking significant investment of £500 million to constrain traffic/pollution levels to raise at current levels over medium to longer term; and

·         the Portfolio Holder for Health and Place referred to a pilot conducted in June and July 2015 under the auspices of the Exeter Health and Wellbeing Board involving three volunteers equipped with personal PM_2.5 monitors and GPS loggers for 24 hours while they conducted their normal work-day commute and activities and the positive change achieved when switching to other modes of transport such as cycling or driving alternative routes that avoided congestion. This project was to be extended in the New Year with Public Health funding.

Members noted the issues raised and suggested that the planning process could offer a further means of combating the growing problems of poor air quality. This could be undertaken either through the planning process for new developments or at a wider strategic level when future City wide transport and planning matters were being brought forward. They asked that this should be highlighted to Executive.

Scrutiny Committee - Community supported the Air Quality Strategy 2015-2020 and asked that Executive be requested to:-

(1)        support, and recommend that Council formally adopt, the Air Quality Strategy 2015-2020rent increase for Council dwellings of 2.2% from 1 April 2015; and

(2)        consider further the significant impact of air pollution on public health, and that greater weight is given to the matter of air quality and lower emissions when developing strategic and infrastructure planning policy and when carrying out development control.