Agenda item

To receive the motion referred by Council at the meeting held on 14 October 2025.

The Chair invited Councillor Wetenhall to present her motion, which she did making the following points:

• there were three resolutions and in order to achieve these some would be easy, cheap or quick and other would be difficult or more expensive;
• some could be done easily and there were best practice websites to compare to; and
• this work was important and relevant.

During discussion Councillors made the following points:

• easy to understand information was required for residents rather than technical detail;
• Denis the Dustcart was an excellent example of how information could be provided and it would be good to have something similar for air quality;
• people may not know the issues of wood burners;
• consultation could feed in information about communicating information and this could be reviewed within the action plan;
• communications could be incorporated into longer term work but it would be good to hear from officers if there were some simple wins; and
• it would be good to bring together technical and communications experts.

The Strategic Director for Operations, Head of Service – Environment and Waste and Portfolio Holder for City Management responded to Members’ questions in the following terms:

• the Digital and Data team were seeking to address website issues, including making information more easily understandable;
• Awaab’s law only applied to social housing at present but would be introduced into the private sector in 2026;
• the non-technical summary was now included on the Air Quality webpage and mapping was available despite some technical difficulties which had arisen;
• some things had been moved from the Air Quality webpage, such as bonfires information which could now be found under pollution and some links maybe required;
• the DCC transport plan had no reference to Air Quality until Exeter City Council’s feedback had been responded to;
• the UK legal limits were included in the non-technical summary;
• the example given of York to look at how information was presented was welcomed; and
• some work was outside the remit of officers present, for example responsibility for damp and mould lay with Housing but all points made would be taken on board.

Councillor Atkinson made a proposal which was subsequently withdrawn that all aspects of the motion be considered as part of the strategy review.

Councillor Miller-Boam proposed, seconded by Councillor Rolstone that Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee:

·        recognises that this council continues to be open and transparent with Air Quality data at the monitoring site and road level;

·        recommends that officers consider additional website content to help improve understanding, for example, links to external organisations, regarding air pollution sources inside and outside the home; and

·        guidance to residents and wider review of communications around air quality be brought forward as part of the air quality strategy in collaboration with Strata and Digital and Data teams.

During debate on the proposal Councillor Kevin Mitchell commented that there was no reference to the motion. Councillor Williams stated that he was pleased this motion had come to scrutiny and that relevant officers had increased his understanding and that as a communications professional he would be happy to support informally where helpful and supported the recommendation. Councillor Wetenhall could not support the wording about being clear and honest as information on the website stated that air quality in this area had low impact and was unlikely to affect residents.

Following a vote the proposal was CARRIED.