Councillors and committees

Agenda item

GUILDFORD TOWN CENTRE, AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT AREA (EXECUTIVE FUNCTION - FOR DECISION)

The Council has a statutory duty, under Section 83 of the Environment Act 1995, to declare an ‘air quality management area’ (AQMA) where a breach of the air quality standard has occurred. This report proposes that the Council designate an ‘air quality management area’ for the pollutant nitrogen dioxide within the area and roads indicated.

Decision:

The Guildford Joint Committee:

 

      i.        Agreed that Guildford Borough Council designate an Air Quality Management Area as identified within the bold purple area shown in Appendix 1.

     ii.        Authorised the Director of Service Delivery, Guildford Borough Council, to make the Order required under Section 83 of the Environment Act 1995 to implement recommendation (i).

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS:

To ensure the Council meets its statutory duties to designate an air quality management area and to improve air quality in an area of Guildford Town Centre.

 

Minutes:

Declarations of Interest: None

 

Officers attending:Gary Durrant, Senior Specialist - Environmental Protection, Justine Fuller, Head of Environment and Regulatory Services, Guildford Borough Council

 

Petitions, Public Questions, Statements: None

 

Member Discussion – key points:

The officer emphasised GBC’s duty to designate an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) having breached air quality limits. There had been a delay in progressing the designation because of interruptions to work caused by covid-19. When considering the extent of the AQMA the air quality threshold had been reduced to 38 microgramme per litre (from 40) to ensure a more cautious approach.

 

The officer thanked the Transport Studies Team Manager at SCC, who had supplied a good deal of the data to the consultants, and noted that the report was the result of joint working between the two authorities.

 

The officer invited input from members on the development of the Air Quality Action Plan; the draft would be brought to this committee in spring 2022. The chairman commented that it would be an opportunity to consider bold solutions to the problem of air pollution, including clean air zones, congestion charges, electric vehicles and ways to encourage a modal shift to reduce the number of trips being made in petrol and diesel vehicles. Working with SCC, especially the Highways team, would be very important.

 

The gyratory in the town centre was highlighted as a well-known area of traffic congestion which could become more congested as traffic levels increase with new local housing developments unless behaviours are tackled.

 

There was a discussion about the completeness of the data that had been used to support the call for designation of the AQMA, with the view expressed that it did not cover the full five-year period required and only showed exceedances in a few discrete locations within the overall area of the proposed AQMA. Opinion was divided, with some members preferring to collect more data and others feeling that there was sufficient to support the designation. The officer commented that DEFRA would review everything in the documents carefully and would report if they felt unsupported conclusions had been reached. He added that there were locations where premises had had a change of use since the measurements had been taken, eg with business premises becoming residential, and this meant reviewing the significance of the results. There was a need to interpret the results cautiously as well because covid restrictions would have reduced measurements temporarily.

 

In response to a request from the Ward member for Onslow, the Cabinet Member for Highways said he would speak to National Highways about a local access route off the A3, adding that NH had commented previously that they would not want to have too many junctions in a short length of the A3.

 

The Head of Environment and Regulatory Services reminded members of the need to focus on measures that would be impactful and to come up with a useful suite of measures that would avoid resolving the issue in the town centre while causing another problem elsewhere nearby. She added that a draft air quality communication strategy had been prepared around health messages and it included a call to action for residents for them to get involved.

 

The officer recommendations were put to the members by the chairman for a vote by a show of hands.

 

Number of votes for recommendations (i) and (ii): 13

Number of votes against recommendations (i) and (ii): 0

Number of abstentions: 1

 

Resolved:

The Guildford Joint Committee:

 

      i.        Agreed that Guildford Borough Council designate an Air Quality Management Area as identified within the bold purple area shown in Appendix 1.

     ii.        Authorised the Director of Service Delivery, Guildford Borough Council, to make the Order required under Section 83 of the Environment Act 1995 to implement recommendation (i).

Reasons for recommendations:

To ensure the Council meets its statutory duties to designate an air quality management area and to improve air quality in an area of Guildford Town Centre.

 

Supporting documents: