2021 Air Quality Annual Status Report (ASR) In fulfilment of Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 Local Air Quality Management Date: July 2021 Wiltshire Council Information Wiltshire Council Details Local Authority Officer Gary Tomsett, Brett Warren, Peter Nobes Department Public Protection Address County Hall, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge. BA14 8JN Telephone 01225 770556 E-mail [email protected] Report Reference Number ASR_2021_Wiltshire Council Date July 2021 LAQM Annual Status Report 2021 Wiltshire Council Executive Summary: Air Quality in Our Area Air Quality in Wiltshire Air pollution is associated with several adverse health impacts. It is recognised as a contributing factor in the onset of heart disease and cancer. Additionally, air pollution particularly affects the most vulnerable in society: children, the elderly, and those with existing heart and lung conditions. There is also often a strong correlation with equalities issues because areas with poor air quality are also often less affluent areas1,2. The mortality burden of air pollution within the UK is equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths at typical ages3, with a total estimated healthcare cost to the NHS and social care of £157 million in 20174. The air quality in Wiltshire is predominantly very good with most of the county having clean unpolluted air. However, there are a small number of locations where the combination of traffic volume, road layout and topography has resulted in pollutants being trapped allowing concentrations to increase to unacceptable levels. There are two pollutants included within the Local Air Quality Management regime that are the cause of concern in Wiltshire: nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM10). In recent times the trend has been toward improving air quality in the county of Wiltshire and while this is borne out by the 2020 diffusion tube results with a reduction of annual mean levels of Nitrogen Dioxide at all 72 of our monitoring sites, the impact of the COVID19 pandemic restrictions cannot be ignored. The real time monitoring shows a similar trend with average mean levels down at all sites for both NO2 and PM10. Only 3 exceedances of the 24hour mean for PM10 were reported, all at one site. 1 Public Health England. Air Quality: A Briefing for Directors of Public Health, 2017 2 Defra. Air quality and social deprivation in the UK: an environmental inequalities analysis, 2006 3 Defra. Air quality appraisal: damage cost guidance, July 2020 4 Public Health England. Estimation of costs to the NHS and social care due to the health impacts of air pollution: summary report, May 2018 LAQM Annual Status Report 2021 i Wiltshire Council There are currently eight Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) in Wiltshire which have been declared in respect of the annual mean objective for nitrogen dioxide, located in the following towns. • Westbury • Devizes • Calne • Marlborough • Salisbury • Bradford on Avon There are three separate AQMAs declared for Salisbury: the city centre, the A30 London Road between St Mark’s roundabout and the railway allotments and Wilton Road between St Paul’s roundabout and Skew Bridge which is part of the A36 trunk road and falls within the control of the Highways England. The AQMA in Bradford on Avon was also declared in respect of the annual mean objectives for PM10. This aspect of the order has now been revoked due to continued compliance with the relevant objective. Maps of the Wiltshire AQMAs are available via the Wiltshire Air Quality website (http://www.wiltshireairquality.org.uk). The Council has established local air quality steering groups to spearhead local initiatives to improve air quality where AQMAs have been declared. These groups report directly to their Area Boards. The groups are composed of local councillors, interest groups and private individuals and they draw upon expertise of other services and experts as they deem necessary. They are tasked with reporting to their Area Board annually. Group activity varies across the county and we will revisit Marlborough and Westbury Area Boards to provide support and assistance. There is a considerable amount of activity being undertaken by Wiltshire Council that can influence air quality. Table 2.2 summarises the key measures contained in our action plan. We have adopted a high-level broad approach to ensure the document is accessible with links to relevant supporting information and other council initiatives and strategies. LAQM Annual Status Report 2021 ii Wiltshire Council Actions to Improve Air Quality Whilst air quality has improved significantly in recent decades and will continue to improve due to national policy decisions, there are some areas where local action is needed to improve air quality further. The 2019 Clean Air Strategy5 sets out the case for action, with goals even more ambitious than EU requirements to reduce exposure to harmful pollutants. The Road to Zero6 sets out the approach to reduce exhaust emissions from road transport through a number of mechanisms; this is extremely important given that the majority of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) are designated due to elevated concentrations heavily influenced by transport emissions. Bradford on Avon one-way system Bradford on Avon one-way system for social distancing was introduced in August 2020 via the use of an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) and continues to operate in to 2021. We have collected a substantial body of data on traffic volumes, speeds, fleet breakdown and air quality from several roads in the town, and we have compared these against the baseline, pre-pandemic figures. We will be drawing on this evidence base as part of our work in relation to our new AQAP which will assist in providing evidence to support the continuation of the scheme as a key air quality measure. Revised Air Quality Strategic Planning Document The Wiltshire Local Plan identifies a significant demand for new housing; however, developments can contribute to a worsening of air quality. Since our last Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) in 2012, there have been substantial changes in national and local air quality objectives, with the number of areas or poor air quality in Wiltshire increasing in number also. Consequently, an updated SPD is urgently required, one which provides clarity to developers regarding what we expect from them in terms of air quality 5 Defra. Clean Air Strategy, 2019 6 DfT. The Road to Zero: Next steps towards cleaner road transport and delivering our Industrial Strategy, July 2018 LAQM Annual Status Report 2021 iii Wiltshire Council which is proportionate to the type of development. Our new SPD requires developers to address the cumulative impact of the following, which in turn establishes the level of mitigation required for their development: - Air quality assessment including the size of the development and location - Associated traffic with the development - Further considerations including topography, industrial developments, timescale of construction/demolition - Source and receptor sites that have been granted planning permission but where no development has yet taken place - Potential for cumulative impacts of other developments in the locality that also have the potential to adversely affect air quality The aim is to secure mitigation either directly or if more appropriate, by offsetting via s106 and CIL funding applications. We will be linking offset mitigation with our new AQAP. The AQAP will contain a range of specific measures to combat area of poor air quality within each of our AQMAs. The measures are based on detailed dispersion modelling and so we have confidence as to their effectiveness. Significant research into how to succinctly present this information to developers has been conducted. Incorporating our 2012 SPD, looking at new policies and guidance from authoritative bodies and inspiration from other council SPD’s has enabled us to create a document which gives developers a simplified, step by step process into what is required to negate further air quality decline from developments in Wiltshire. The new Air Quality Hub has also provided a valuable source of information when carrying out this review. We have also linked the mitigation into the council’s emerging EV charging infrastructure strategy to ensure a more strategic targeting of resources so that the right charging points (i.e Fast 7kw AC, Rapid 50kw DC and Ultra Rapid 200kw DC) are installed in the correct locations. AQAP Planning At the time of writing the 2020 ASR, our intention was to have completed the AQAP by now. Unfortunately our plans were delayed due to a combination of an unprecedented volume of reactive compliant work, the loss of a member of staff who specialised in air quality work and additional finance controls. Although we have had to overcome LAQM Annual Status Report 2021 iv Wiltshire Council challenges, we have been able to progress this project. We have now finalised the traffic emission model which now aligns well with our network of passive diffusion tubes. As such we can use this as a mechanism to reliably predict the impact of various measures on local air quality within our AQMAs. Source apportionment has been completed which has identified the NOx contribution from each vehicle type along with a breakdown of required reductions within each AQMA. We have worked closely with colleagues in our highways team who have provided us with up to date detailed traffic data within each of our AQMAs. We are currently in consultation with our partners on a proposed ‘long list’ of measures for each AQMA. Our partners include colleagues working in the following teams: • Spatial/Strategic Planning • Development Control • Public Health • Transport/Highways • Carbon Reduction • Corporate Economic Recovery • Highways England We are reliant on the knowledge and expertise of our key partners to help us identify and evaluate proposed measures. Following this consultation with our partners, a total of 13 measures will be quantitatively modelled for the AQAP.