Agenda item

(i)            Joint report of the Assistant Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Neighbourhood Services.

(ii)          Presentation by Pollution Manager, Neighbourhood Services.

The Committee considered a joint report and presentation of the Assistant Chief Executive and Corporate Director Neighbourhood Services which provided an update on the development of the Air Quality Action Plan for Durham City (for copy of report and slides of presentation see file of minutes).

The presentation provided details on the Corporate Air Quality Steering Group and Air Quality Technical Working Group and their roles in developing an Air Quality Action Plan for Durham City. Details were also provided of the milestones and associated timescales for the work programme.

The Pollution Control Manager advised that an Air Quality Technical Working Group and an Air Quality Corporate Steering Group had been set up to undertake and fulfil the requirement of establishing a draft Air Quality Action Plan for Durham City.  A structured programme that covered identified stages of the work project  in the form of work milestones had been established for the drafting of the Air Quality Action Plan.

The Senior Air Quality Officer then went on to provide some detail relating to the requirements that cover Local Air Quality Action Plans and a summary was provided relating to work already completed on  milestone 1. The presentation further outlined examples of the options included in the Draft Air Quality Action Plan..

The Senior Air Quality Officer presented a summary of work which was ongoing or yet to be completed on milestones 2, 3 and 4. With regard to progress to date it was reported by the Pollution Control Manager that:

•      Work Milestone 1 (July-Dec 2013) =Achieved

•      Work Milestone 2 (Jan-Jul 2014) =Achieved in part - some tasks have had to be incorporated into work milestone 3 mainly due to the scale of task

•      Work Milestone 3  (Aug-Dec 2014) =on going

•      Work Milestone 4 (Jan-March 2015) =on course

It was noted that there were potential challenges that included: other priorities of the Council; dependency upon consultants to complete appraisals and external partners to progress improvement measures.

In conclusion it was noted that targeted monitoring to determine improvements in Air Quality within Durham City would be ongoing and periodically reviewed and revised as and when required.  It was noted that the Council is required to report progress on the development of the Air Quality Action Plan and the subsequent impact on air quality from the implementation of the air quality improvement measures annually to the Government via the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

Mr T Bolton, asked how closely the team are working with bus operators as it was known that buses are  one of the principal sources of air pollution within the city. . In response the Pollution Control Manager advised that the team  sought to work closely with transport colleagues to encourage the bus operators to update the fleet of buses with engines with a better emission standard. It was also noted that some progress had already been made since funding had been obtained for the upgrading of buses operating on one route within the Air Quality Management Area. . Further discussion took place regarding the County Durham Plan and Councillor Adam commented that there could be a risk of the actions not working as a consequence of the impact of the new developments proposed within and on the periphery of Durham City that is contained within the County Durham Plan and the Supplementary Planning Documents..  In response the Pollution Control Manager advised that the Senior Air Quality Officer had undertaken work to establish and develop guidance that seeks to minimise the impact on air quality from new development and that an option is included within the Air Quality Action Plan for this guidance to become a Supplementary Planning Document. 

The Pollution Control Manager raised the issue that DEFRA may impose penalties under the Localism Act on Councils where the air quality standards are not met.   It was noted that as long as the team could demonstrate working towards achieving the standard   DEFRA would be satisfied in the interim.

Councillor Hall asked whether it was possible to access and view  air quality levels online  from the monitors that were in place in Durham City. In response it was reported that there was a link on the Air Quality web pages  that  could be found by accessing Durham County Council’s website, however not all monitors were linked up to this facility.

I Further to the previous discussion  there wasa question from the Chair on the likelihood of delays to establish and develop the draft Air Quality Action Plan and therefore penalties being imposed by DEFRA for not achieving  the required air quality  standards.  The  Pollution Control Manager advised that they work closely with DEFRA and as long as there is evidence of working toward compliance no action would be taken however if there was no evidence of  progressing this work then there is a possibility that the authority could be fined.

Councillor Hall further commented that there are also a large number of taxis that operate within Durham City and queried whether the council could offer preferential rates to taxi licence holders to encourage a mass switch over to lower emission vehicles. It was reported that this had actually been looked in to, however, there had not been much support for this from the Corporate Steering Group. It was something however that would be revisited in the future.

Resolved:

That the content of the report and presentation be noted.