Pollution control - air

Service outline:

This report is a requirement of the Air Quality Strategy for the UK, which places a duty on local authorities to review and assess air quality periodically within their local authority.

Ribble Valley Borough Council, in undertaking this Updating and Screening Assessment, is working towards securing the air quality objectives across the local authority, as set out in the Air Quality Regulations 2000 and Air Quality [Amendment][England] Regulations 2002.

Where an area within the authority is identified as being at risk of exceeding an air quality objective, the local authority must declare an air quality management area (AQMA).

Ribble Valley BC has satisfied the Government, following the first round of air quality review and assessment, that there are no air quality objectives predicted to exceed their target dates across the Borough.

The objective of this current round of assessment is to consider any matters that have changed since the first Review and Assessment, which may lead to a risk of an air quality objective not being met.

Such changes include the consideration of new objectives, new monitoring data, new sources or significant changes to existing sources within Ribble Valley and surrounding authorities. This assessment considers each of these matters on a pollutant by pollutant basis in chapter 3.

The focus of the last round of air quality assessment was the exposure of members of the public to potential exceedences of the national air quality objectives. Air quality objectives are healthbased, and therefore public exposure remains the focus for this assessmeare