Agenda item
AIR QUALITY - OFFICER UPDATE
Minutes:
Paul Clift, Environmental Health Manager and
Jo Shaw, Environmental Project Officer updated the meeting on
issues around Air Quality, its ongoing projects and its
challenges.
In the discussion the following points were made:
·
A new Air Quality Action Plan within an overarching Air Quality
Strategy will be agreed by 2018.
·
The Council in conjunction with neighbouring authorities and
businesses had participated in a number of projects aimed at
reducing air pollution from businesses, such as the City Fringe
Zero Emissions Network, Zero Emissions Network (ZEN), a Low
Emission Neighbourhood and a freight
consolidation initiative with the London boroughs of Camden and
Enfield.
·
The Council had also worked on anti-idling projects with schools,
businesses and during events at the Emirates Stadium and elsewhere
in the community on ‘Action Days’. With regard to
vehicle idling, Members were informed that although this was
against the law in Islington and drivers can be issued with fixed
penalty notices, the law requires officers to ask a driver to
switch off and if they don’t comply to that request, only
then can a FPN be served. Although the legislation is weak
regarding FPNs, the idling projects were a good opportunity to
raise awareness and educate drivers on their part in causing air
pollution hotspots, such as at school gates, rather than simply
serving a fixed penalty notice. In response to a question, the
meeting was advised that enforcement of idling is undertaken by two
dedicated response teams and members of the Pollution Team
(totalling approximately 30 officers) who will patrol hot spot
areas such as outside school gates, bus stands and the Emirates
Stadium on event days, as well as responding to
complaints
·
In response to a question on the level of public awareness/campaign
about pollution caused by idling vehicles, Members were advised
that the Council was part of a City of London initiative, funded by
the Mayor of London which was a high profile London wide campaign
involving 10 boroughs. Islington has received media attention as
part of this campaign from local press and was featured on BBC
Breakfast news.
·
The Environmental Health Manager informed Members that all local
authorities within Air Quality Management Areas are required by
both DEFRA and for London, the Office of the Mayor of London, to
undertake an audit known as an Annual Status Report where local
actions and information on air pollution levels are reported on a
yearly basis. The Annual Status Report is also published on the
Council website.
·
The meeting was informed that addressing air pollution requires
working in partnership across different Council departments, with
neighbouring authorities, in the community and with businesses More
specifically with planning, Islington presently through its policy
on home building programmes and its permitted development does not
promote car ownership.
·
strategy was launched, the Officer acknowledged that although there
was still more work to be done, there had been an overall
improvement in air quality over recent years. The Council now
complies with the majority of the EU/UK air quality limit values
with the exception of the annual mean level for Nitrogen dioxide
which was breached on main roads in the borough. Islington in
common with other London boroughs and urban areas across the
country, continues to breach the Nitrogen dioxide annual limit
value, and Members were notified that this was the reason for the
legal action against the UK government by Client Earth and the
issuing of an air quality action plan by Defra, which the Council,
via Councillor Webbe had responded to during a recent consultation.
This long standing legal action by Client Earth and the issuing of
the action plan by Defra had been widely covered in the media as
awareness of air pollution increases across the community. In this
respect the Officer indicated that the Council continues to
encourages its’ residents to sign up to the free air TEXT
service to receive alerts on days of high air pollution, which
allows them to make plans to avoid pollution by changing travel
plans, by taking back street walking or cycling routes or preparing
themselves by carrying or taking medication. Members were informed
that Islington had helped develop and coordinates the air TEXT
service on behalf of all the London boroughs and beside air
pollution alerts, can also alert people of high UV, pollen and
temperature levels. The air TEXT alerts are sent to subscribers via
a text, an email, to a home phone, via social media such as
Twitter, an App, or by logging into the website www.airtext.info .
·
Air pollution was of considerable importance and high on the agenda
not only locally but nationally in the context of being a public
health emergency. The Council recognises that the main source of
air pollution locally in Islington is from road traffic, with a
large contribution of this being the fumes from diesel fuelled
vehicles. The Council does not consider there to be a clean diesel
vehicle and acknowledges the failure of diesel vehicle EU emission
standards to deliver the real world improvements in air quality
promised from laboratory testing.
·
With regards to concerns about dirty air being
emitted from diesel vehicles, the meeting was advised that this was
being addressed through the Mayor’s Air Quality and Transport
Strategies with plans, for example, to phase out diesel black cabs
in London from 2018, where from the 1st January 2018, taxis presented for
licensing for the first time will need to be Zero Emission Capable. The Officer also indicated that the
Council was in consultation with Transport for London and the
Greater London Authority on ensuring that the necessary
infrastructure was in place for the smooth transition over to the
use of electric and hybrid vehicles. Issues such as the siting and
accessibility of charging points for private hire mini cabs using
electric and hybrid cars were being discussed.
·
The Officer advised that the impact of air pollution on public
health was being considered as a topic by the Health & Care
Scrutiny Committee. The Environmental Health Manager agreed to keep
the Committee informed of any developments that may arise from the
Committee’s review which is due to commence on the
14th September 2017, with a Scrutiny Initiation Document
currently being jointly drafted by Officers from Public Health and
Public Protection.
The Chair thanked the Officers and requested
that due to the importance of this issue in the context of both
road safety and public health concerns, the Committee would welcome
it to be included as an item on the agenda for consideration.
RESOLVED:
That the Committee be kept informed of outcomes from the review to be undertaken by the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee on Air Quality and Public Health.
Supporting documents: