Agenda item

The Mayor and Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health submitted a report for Executive consideration.

The purpose of the report was to seek Executive approval of the South Tees Clean Air Strategy.

The Mayor presented the report advising Executive that exposure to air pollution could affect everyone's health. When people inhaled air pollutants, those pollutants could enter bloodstreams and contribute to coughing or cause eye irritation. They could also cause, or worsen, many breathing and lung diseases, leading to hospitalisations, cancer, or even premature death. The effects of air pollution could be severe in people that already had underlying medical conditions. It was important that air quality was monitored in our area to ensure that pollutant levels were not exceeding levels that could cause illness to our residents.

In Middlesbrough there were two air quality monitoring sites located at Breckon Hill Primary School and MacMillan College. Each site monitored air quality using real time monitoring equipment. The pollutants measured were particulate matter (PM10 and PM 2.5), nitrogen dioxides, sulphur dioxides and ozone. There were also 24 tubes located across Middlesbrough which monitored nitrogen dioxide. These tubes were changed monthly and gave an annual average result for the area. This provided an indication of nitrogen dioxide levels across the whole of the town. All the pollutants measured in Middlesbrough had the ability to impact on the health of its communities and therefore air quality monitoring was vital to ensure that Middlesbrough did not reach levels of air quality that could cause ill effects.

The South Tees Clean Air Strategy demonstrated that air quality across Middlesbrough was good and met the UK legal standards. The graphs in Appendix two of the report showed the air quality levels for PM10 and nitrogen dioxide and how they had compared with both the national and the WHO standards over the period 2011-2022. Although air quality levels met the UK legal standards, these could change and become more stringent in the future. The World Health Organisation had their own air quality guidelines (AQG) as a global target for national, regional and city governments to work towards improving air pollution. Most local authorities within England and Wales did not meet these AQG guidelines. However, they set an aspirational target, a reminder that there was still room for improvement that should be worked towards. Therefore, through the Clean Air Strategy Middlesbrough aimed to improve its air quality in the South Tees beyond UK legal standards, to protect the health of our residents and to make our air as clean as it can be.

The Mayor commented that air quality in the town would continue to be monitored and was heading in the right direction. It was clarified that the monitoring sites in Middlesbrough were monitored monthly as standard but could be more often if required.

Members queried if the Clean Air Strategy accounted for future housing developments and the loss of trees as these contributed to air pollution.

While other sectors, such as industry and agriculture, contributed more to air pollution than house building, relevant checks would be undertaken for housing development sites.

A Member of the public commented that Middlesbrough had a high volume of traffic for its size which could be exacerbated with additional house building.

ORDERED that Executive approves the South Tees Clean Air Strategy.

OPTIONS

The UK Government, as part of the publication of the Environment Act 2021 announced that it would be mandatory for all Local Authorities who had not been required to have an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in place, to develop an Air Quality Strategy by 2023. As Middlesbrough had not had to declare an AQMA due to the national air quality objectives not being breached it was required to develop an Air Quality Strategy. On this basis, there was no alternative to this proposal.

REASONS

The Clean Air Strategy set the policy and process for improving the air quality standards across the South Tees, to improve the physical environment, improve the health of our populations and tackle heath inequalities. It was a statutory requirement for Middlesbrough to have a Clean Air Strategy in place.