Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)/Public Health England (PHE)

Air Quality A Briefing for Directors of Public Health, March 2017

 Click on the document title above for link to document.

This page provides selected highlights of particular interest to Councillors but is a generally good introduction to air pollution for all.

Councillors should also read about their council’s local council obligations to reduce air pollution to legal levels and how to construct an Air Quality Action Plan. It deals specifically with responsibilities of our tiered councils.

Document Introduction

Taking action to improve air quality is crucial in order to improve population health. There is growing evidence that air pollution is a significant contributor to preventable ill health and early death. These health impacts impose a cost on the UK economy that has been estimated to run into billions.

Local authorities have a major role to play. The transfer of additional responsibilities for public health to local government in 2013 has presented a major opportunity for Directors of Public Health and Councillors to take action to enhance this leadership on air quality. Progress will be seen by designing and implementing the right policies and interventions and raising awareness of the issue.

Alongside national measures, local leadership is essential. Local authorities have a central role in achieving improvements in air quality; their local knowledge and interaction with the communities that they serve mean that they know the issues on the ground in detail. They are best placed to decide and work with partners to implement the appropriate solutions.

Section 6., Pages 99-115, provides a section dedicated to a briefing for elected members.

What can local authorities do?

There are many things that local authorities can do to tackle the health impacts of local air pollution - and to do so cost effectively.

While overarching regulations like vehicle emission standards are controlled by governments the new vehicle and appliance designs by industry, local authorities have many powers for instance;

·      Clean air zones, no-through-town for vehicles, forbidding the dirtiest vehicles in favour of cleaner ones, low or zero emission last mile services. All payment services.

·      Smooth driving and speed reduction.

·      Creating safe cycling and walking routes and areas.

·      Create safe and secure parking for cycles and other zero emission personal transport.

·      Vehicle free roads and extensive pedestrian areas.

·      Street designs and road layouts.

·      Traffic management

·      Parking management.

·      Charging businesses for their car parking (and encouraging two people in a car, etc)

·      Reducing car parking spaces.

·      Reviewing car parking pricing strategies.

·      Review car parking perks for local authority.

·      Re-purpose car parks to housing and green areas.

·      Integrate rail and bus services.

·      Development management.

·      Local planning.

·      Reducing emissions from public sector transport services and vehicle fleets.

·      Reviewing and enforcing Smoke Control areas.

All these actions are potential ways to reducing emissions concentrations or exposure to pollution

Any improvements in air quality will have positive health consequences. Improvements to air quality are also an important co-benefit of interventions targeting other health outcomes, such as active travel or increased physical activity.

Actions to address the health impacts of air pollution can also play a critical role in supporting other local priorities such as health inequalities, care integration and supported self-management sustainability, growth and regeneration and localism and community engagement. 

Public Health England produced an evidence based “review of interventions to improve outdoor air quality and public health”. Which describes the principle interventions for local authorities.

This document describes the general approach, vehicle and fuel interventions, planning structural design interventions, industrial interventions, agricultural interventions, and behavioural interventions.

It provides further information on the interventions making clear that a holistic approach is required.

What can elected members do?

• Raise concerns amongst your residents and businesses

• Find out if you have local pollution hot spots (remembering that there may be a public health problem even where there isn’t an Air Quality Management Area)

• Find out if your local authority has any Smoke Control Areas (SCAs), and ensure they are clearly communicated to support enforcement

• Raise the issue with your health and well-being board

• Encourage Cabinet understanding and overview and scrutiny across a range of council strategies which will have

an impact, direct or indirect, on air pollution

• Engage your Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) about considering mitigation of air pollution along economic development

• Consider air pollution issues from construction, transport and building heating as part of planning decisions

• Consider using your powers to implement a Clean Air Zone

• Celebrate successes in reducing air pollution

• Ensure your council is encouraging others in the community to act

• Ensure your council is informing and engaging the public.

What questions should elected members ask?

• Do we have a problem of air pollution in our area? Are we considering levels of pollution below the EU limit? Where are our local hot spots?

• Does the council have a robust way of understanding local levels of air pollution and its effects on the health of local people?

• What does the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) say about air pollution? Should it say more?

• Does the council have a strategy and action plan for improving air quality or reducing exposure to pollution?

• Is the council considering air pollution when it decides its health and well- being priorities? What does the Health and Well-being Strategy say about air pollution?

• Is the council considering how action on air pollution might support its work on active travel, health inequalities, self-management and integrated care, sustainability, growth and regeneration, and localism and community engagement?

• Is the council working with local businesses, the NHS and the voluntary sector to ensure they are playing their role in improving air quality?

• Are members of the public aware of air pollution and do they know what to do if they have concerns about it? Could the council do more to get people engaged, for instance with community

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