2014 Air Quality Progress Report for City of York Council In fulfillment of Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 Local Air Quality Management April 2014 City of York Council Local Authority Andrew Gillah Officers Elizabeth Bates Department Environmental Protection Unit Hazel Court Eco Depot Address James Street York YO10 3DS Telephone 01904 551532 / 551529 [email protected] e-mail [email protected] Report Reference PR2014 number Date April 2014 LAQM Progress Report 2014 1 City of York Council Executive Summary This report provides an update on local air quality management in York. It sets out the progress made in achieving / maintaining pollutant concentrations below the air quality objectives and implementation of the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) and Low Emission Strategy (LES) measures. The report has been prepared in accordance with the guidance provided in Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance LAQM.TG(09). The following items have been included: • New air quality monitoring results and consideration of historical trends in air quality data • Details of new developments that may affect local air quality • Summary of existing policies in relation to air quality and the planning process • An update on the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) and implementation of the Low Emission Strategy (LES) Within the existing AQMAs, reductions in annual mean concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were observed at Fishergate, Nunnery Lane and Fulford continuous monitors between 2012 and 2013. Over the same period, increases in annual mean concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were observed at Lawrence Street, Holgate Road and Gillygate. The increase observed at Lawrence Street in 2013 meant that this site breached the annual mean nitrogen dioxide objective for the first time since monitoring commenced at this site in 2004. Both continuous monitoring sites outside the Air Quality Management Area (Bootham and Heworth Green) exhibited reductions in annual average nitrogen dioxide concentrations between 2012 and 2013. This reduction was pronounced at Heworth Green (reduction of 7.1µg/m 3). Slightly smaller reductions were observed at the Bootham background monitoring site (4.4µg/m 3 reduction). Background concentrations at Bootham hospital in 2013 are the lowest on record since 1999; they were comparable to annual mean concentrations monitored at this site in 2004 and LAQM Progress Report 2014 2 City of York Council 2005. For the purpose of monitoring the impact of York’s Local Transport Plan (LTP) a local air quality indicator has been established. This indicator measures the mean of 40 annual average results obtained from 40 diffusion tubes located within York’s city centre AQMA. Nitrogen dioxide concentrations across the city were in general decline between 2002 and 2005. Between 2006 and 2010, levels across the city centre AQMA rose, but in more recent years there is emerging evidence of a steady improvement within the AQMA. Levels of nitrogen dioxide across the 40 sites used for the indicator fell from 40µg/m 3 in 2012 to 34µg/m 3 in 2013. Exceedences of the annual mean nitrogen dioxide objective were observed across the city centre AQMA during 2013. The existing AQMA boundaries are still considered accurate. Whilst concentrations of nitrogen dioxide along Fulford Main Street and Salisbury Terrace were elevated during 2013 there we no exceedences monitored in these locations. Some reduction in nitrogen dioxide concentration was observed in these areas between 2012 and 2013 and it is proposed to review the extent of the AQMA boundary if the objective continues to be met in future years. Concentrations well in excess of the 40µg/m 3 annual mean objective were observed on along Rougier Street and George Hudson Street, although concentrations are currently less that 60µg/m 3 (a level which is indicative of breaches of the short-term hourly mean objective). As the city centre AQMA was extended in 2012 to include this area of the city on the basis of potential breaches of both the annual mean and hourly mean, the extent and nature of this AQMA declaration may need to be reviewed in future years. Monitoring of other pollutants, including particulate matter (PM 10 ), has not indicated any issues with respect to the other air quality objectives. On this basis no further AQMAs are proposed at this time. A further, comprehensive update for other pollutants will be provided as part of City of York Council’s next Update and Screening Report, due in April 2015. LAQM Progress Report 2014 3 City of York Council Over the past year, good progress has been made with implementation of many of the measures in the Air Quality Action Plan – progress with each measure is documented in Chapter 9. An update on progress made with measures in the Low Emission Strategy is provided in Chapter 4. Any queries regarding the content of this Air Quality Progress Report should be directed to: Andrew Gillah / Elizabeth Bates Principal Environmental Protection Officers (Air Quality) City of York Council Environmental Protection Unit Eco Depot, Hazel Court, James Street York, YO10 3DS e-mail: [email protected] Tel : (01904) 551532 e-mail: [email protected] Tel : (01904) 551529 LAQM Progress Report 2014 4 City of York Council Table of Contents 1 Introduction Page 1.1 Description of Local Authority Area 9 1.2 Purpose of Progress Report 10 1.3 Air Quality Objectives 10 1.4 Summary of Previous Review and Assessments 12 2 New Monitoring Data 19 2.1 Summary of Monitoring Undertaken 19 2.1.1 Automatic Monitoring Sites 19 2.1.2 Non-Automatic Monitoring Sites 23 2.2 Comparison of Monitoring Results with Air Quality Objectives 26 2.2.1 Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2) 26 2.2.2 Particulate Matter (PM 10 ) 48 2.2.3 Sulphur Dioxide (SO 2) 52 2.2.4 Benzene (C 6H6) 52 2.2.5 Other Pollutants Monitored 52 2.2.6 Summary of Compliance with AQS Objectives 54 3 New Local Developments 55 3.1 Road Traffic Sources 55 3.2 Other Transport Sources 55 3.3 Industrial Sources 56 3.4 Commercial and Domestic Sources 56 3.5 New Developments with Fugitive or Uncontrolled Sources 57 4 Local / Regional Air Quality Strategy 58 4.1 City of York Council’s Low Emission Strategy 58 4.2 Progress with Low Emission Strategy Measures 59 4.2.1 Tackling emissions from private vehicles 59 4.2.2 Tackling emission from buses, coaches and HGVs 60 4.2.3 Council Fleet and other work 61 5 Planning Applications 64 5.1 Approved Planning Applications 64 5.2 Planning Applications under consideration 68 LAQM Progress Report 2014 5 City of York Council 6 Air Quality Planning Policies 76 6.1 Assessment of Planning Applications by EPU 76 6.2 Air Quality Planning Policies 78 7 Local Transport Plans and Strategies 81 7.1 Integration of the AQAP and LTP 81 8 Climate Change Strategies 83 8.1 The Climate Change Framework 83 8.2 The Climate Change Action Plan 83 8.3 The Internal Carbon Management Plan 84 9 Implementation of Action Plans 85 9.1 Progress with Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP2) 85 9.2 Main considerations for the development of AQAP3 95 10 Conclusions and Proposed Actions 97 10.1 Conclusions from New Monitoring Data 97 10.2 Conclusions relating to New Local Developments 98 10.3 Proposed Actions 98 11 References 99 LAQM Progress Report 2014 6 City of York Council List of Tables Table No Page No Air Quality Objectives included in Regulations for the 1.1 11 purpose of LAQM in England 1.2 City of York Council’s Review and Assessment Process 17 2.1 Details of Automatic Monitoring Sites operational in 2013 21 2.2 Particulate monitoring equipment in operation during 2013 23 Nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube monitoring surveys 2.3 undertaken since the completion of the Air Quality 23 Progress report 2013 Results of automatic monitoring for nitrogen dioxide: 2.4 26 comparison with annual mean objective Results of automatic monitoring for nitrogen dioxide: 2.5 27 comparison with 1-hour mean objective 2.6 Results of Nitrogen Dioxide Diffusion Tubes 2013 31 Estimation of bias-corrected annual mean diffusion tube 2.7 45 concentrations from short-term monitoring data Results of Automatic Monitoring for PM 10 : Comparison with 2.8 49 Annual Mean Objective Results of Automatic Monitoring for PM 10 : Comparison with 2.9 51 24-hour Mean Objective 2.10 Results of Benzene Monitoring in York 52 2.11 Ozone monitoring at Dunnington 53 Planning applications approved since the last Progress 5.1 65 Report 5.2 Planning applications under consideration 69 9.1 Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP2) Progress 86 LAQM Progress Report 2014 7 City of York Council List of Figures Figure No Page No York’s First Air Quality Management Area (declared 1.1 13 January 2002) York’s Second Air Quality Management Area (declared 1.2 14 April 2010) 1.3 Salisbury Terrace AQMA 15 1.4 City Centre AQMA (revised 2012) 16 Location of real time monitoring sites in York (sites operational in 2013 shown in Yellow (10 sites), historical 2.1 19 sites shown in grey (4 sites), AQMA boundaries shown in red) Trends in Annual Mean Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations 2.2 28 Measured at Automatic Monitoring Sites inside the AQMA Trends in Annual Mean Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations 2.3 Measured at Automatic Monitoring Sites outside the 29 AQMA Trends in Annual mean Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations 2.4 Measured at Diffusion Tube Monitoring Sites (Local 47 Transport Plan – AQ Indicator) 2.5 Trends in Annual Mean PM 10 Concentrations 50 Appendices Appendix 1: External Contracts Appendix 2: Data Management Appendix 3: Non-automatic monitoring sites Appendix 4: Bias and Precision Calculations LAQM Progress Report 2014 8 City of York Council 1 Introduction 1.1 Description of Local Authority Area City of York Council is a unitary authority covering approximately 105 square miles with a population of around 202,400.