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The Executive Councillor for Climate Action and the
Environment joined the committee via MS Teams so decisions for her portfolio
were taken by the Leader of the Council.
Public Question
A member of the public asked a question as set out
below by written statement and asked for response to be included in the
minutes.
i."Back in Feb 2017 I asked
Cambridge City Council air quality in Cambridge. See https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=116&MId=3053 item 17/4/CNL
and also the video I filmed of the Q&A at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMlaM9pw6iA
ii.Please could the council provide
an update on any progress it had made regarding improving air quality - in
particular whether Parliament had granted local councils at district/borough
level any additional powers and/or duties. Furthermore could the council state
whether any powers/duties have been transferred to other tiers of the state -
for example the county council or combined authority.”
The Environmental Quality & Growth Manager responded:
i.
Since 2017 we have had no
exceedances of the Air Quality (England) Regulations 2000 for Nitrogen Dioxide
(NO2), Particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10). In
2017 we had one exceedance of the NO2 annual mean AQO.
ii.
Following 2020 and 2021, where
Covid severely restricted vehicle movements in the city, we saw an increase in
concentrations on NO2 and PM10 at monitoring locations in the City in
2022. We were continuing to monitor concentrations during 2023 to see
whether this upward trend continues or whether we have reached a stable level
of concentrations.
iii.
In 2021 the Environment Act 1995
was amended. The amendment of this act had brought in changes to existing
legislation and new legislation. The main changes were:
a.
Updates to the Smoke Control Area
Regulations:
The reason these regulations have been updated
was to reflect the concern around concentrations of PM2.5 in the atmosphere,
where various studies have confirmed that there was no safe level for human
health. Domestic solid fuel burning had been found to be a contributory source
of primary PM2.5 emissions in urban areas. The new Smoke Control
Regulations allow local authorities to issue civil penalties to any premises if
they were emitting smoke within a smoke control area. The regulations
also allow local authorities to include moored vessels in their smoke control
areas following a period of consultation.
b.
New Environmental Target
Regulations 2023:
These regulations set an annual mean target
level for PM2.5 and an emissions reduction target level for PM2.5. All
local authorities were expected to work towards meeting these target
levels. This was a requirement of the Environment Act 2021.
c.
Updates to the Local Air Quality
Management Policy Guidance (PG22).
o Local Authorities to
take a preventative approach to air quality rather than waiting for exceedances
to occur, if no AQMA, local Authorities should have an Air Quality Strategy in
place to improve air quality.
o Greater collaboration
between air quality partners, especially Public Health and regional
partners. Partners should put forward actions for the AQAP including
expected timescales for completion. National Highways had now been
designated as an Air Quality Partner.
o Improvement to public
access to air quality information / community engagement.
o Consideration of heath
inequalities and poor air quality.
o Reminders for submission
of Annual Status Report (ASR’s) by 30th June each year and proposing to
withhold air quality grant funding for missing deadlines.
o Consider boundaries of
Smoke Control Areas in the District.
o Linkages between air
quality and climate change policies working together for shared improvements.
d.
National Air Quality Strategy
2023:
o Strategy Document from
Defra which sets out the requirements for local authorities to take to improve
air quality.
o Under Local Air Quality
Management Regulations, District Authorities or Unitary Authorities still have
responsibility for air quality in their areas. No powers or
responsibilities for air quality have been transferred to Cambridgeshire County
Council or the Combined Authority. However, the Local Air Quality
Management Regulation Policy Guidance sets responsibilities for partner
organisations such as County Councils and bodies such as the Combined Authority
to work with District Authorities to improve air quality. If there were
any disputes as to whether partner organisations were fulfilling their
requirements under LAQM this would be decided by the relevant Secretary of
State.
e.
Taxis and EV Infrastructure:
o As of June 2023 we have
55 EV and 65 petrol hybrid out of a fleet of 452.
o We have provided 17
rapid charge points with taxi dedicated access and a discounted tariff for
registered taxi drivers.
o We have provided 38x7kw
and 4x50kw rapid on street chargers in residential areas, and a significant
further deployment of over 70x7kw chargers in city council surface and
multistorey car parks was underway.
Matter for
Decision
Cambridge City Council was
required to adopt an Air Quality Strategy and officers sought a decision on two
key elements of the scope prior to bringing a final strategy to Environment and
Community Scrutiny committee.
i.
Investigate the opportunity
for a joint strategy with South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC).
ii.
The adoption World Health
Organisation (WHO) Targets.
Whilst the option existed to
do a standalone Cambridge City Air Quality Strategy, given the transboundary
nature of air pollution, the scale of development and population increase
coming forward in the next 20 years through the emerging Greater Cambridge
Local plan and the operation of a joint planning service; it seemed appropriate
to align the strategy with the new local plan. A joint strategy with SCDC would
enable an integrated approach to minimising emissions and maximise benefits to
public health.
It was widely accepted that
there was no safe level of air pollution. Cambridge currently exceeded WHO
guideline levels.
The Strategy would be
delivered in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, Public Health,
South Cambridgeshire District council, Greater Cambridge Planning Service and
Greater Cambridge Partnership.
Decision
of Leader of the Council
ii.
Approved the progress of a joint Greater
Cambridge Air Quality Strategy with South Cambridgeshire District Council with
the finalised Strategy coming before committee in March 2024.
iii.
Approved the progress of a
Cambridge City Air quality strategy should South Cambridgeshire District
Council not wish to pursue a joint strategy, or the delivery times becomes too
long.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Environmental Quality & Growth Manager.
Opposition Councillors made the following comments in response to the
report:
i.
NO2 emissions were mainly caused by traffic, but levels
from heating homes and businesses had also risen.
ii.
The role of tree canopy/plants in cleaning the air
was missing from the Officer report.
iii.
Referred to paragraph 3.1.1 in the Officer’s
report. Local authorities were required to monitor key pollutants across their
district under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework. Research from
Centre for Cities suggested the City Council was not performing well.
iv.
There was a lot of development in the city.
Planning conditions were in place to protect bats, but how to protect school
children next to the Owlstone Croft development site when dust was created
during construction work? There were no comments from Planners so School
Governors had to. Queried how to train Planners about air pollution to pick up
issues at the start of the process? Suggested there was a need to strengthen
policies in the next Local Plan.
The Environmental Quality & Growth Manager said the following in
response to Members’ questions:
i.
Interim air quality targets were being developed to
cover the city and wider area around it. These would apply until WHO ones were
brought in.
ii.
Progress was being made on the electric vehicle
charging situation such as a network of charging points for taxis. The City
Council was working with the County Council to install general use street
chargers, around seventy would be installed in car parks.
iii.
An action plan would be developed alongside the
Carbon Strategy to list practical measures the City Council and partners could
take to improve air quality.
The Executive Councillor said city and rural
emissions would be measured through a joint strategy to try and meet ambitious
targets with South Cambs District Council. The intention was to reduce the
amount of emissions and pollutants in the air, not rely on the trees to clean
it.
iv.
The City Council had not undertaken an exceedance
measure since 2017, so it was legally compliant. This did not affect the Centre
for Cities rank of 56th. The City Council had been unable to substantiate
why the rank was given as Centre for Cities had not provided their source data.
v.
It was important that the Carbon Strategy had a
bearing on planning applications. The Environmental Services Team were
consulted on planning applications. There was no way to damp down dust on a
building site, prohibiting development if dust occurred would place an
unreasonable condition on developers so building work could not go ahead.
Developers were expected to adhere to Environmental Service conditions when these
were imposed.
The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendations.
The Leader approved the
recommendations on behalf of the Executive Councillor.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.
