Local Authority Air Quality Monitoring
Under the Part IV of the Environment Act 1995, West Somerset Council are required to regularly review and assess air quality in the area with the objective to check the likelihood of an exceedance occurring from any of the prescribed air quality pollutants. If there is a risk of an exceedance, the Council must go to a more detailed assessment for that parameter. At present the annual review and assessment reports (shown on the right) conclude there is no need to go a more detailed assessment for any air quality parameter. The Council has received a commendation previously (2008 report) from Defra, who explained the report was an excellent example of good practice, and we are striving to continue with this standard.
The latest report includes an update on the biomass screening assessment. The Council collate an inventory of all large biomass boilers and we work closely with the two planning authorities to generate this data. From this inventory, we have calculated emissions from the large individual plants (>50kW) and adjusted it against the generally good background air quality in the area. The assessment shows the impacts to be within the health thresholds and no hotspots or localised build-up of poor air quality have been identified. This shows that the more ‘eco’ or green option chosen by some properties to heat the dwellings is not having a detrimental impact on health.
Whilst, this report falls within the service delivery of Environmental Health, it is of potential interest to other bodies associated with air quality management, and bodies whose actions may impact on air quality, such as those involved in planning and transport. It is also of interest to other partners such as the Local Strategic Partnership because of the objective/action to reduce emissions in the area.