Agenda and minutes

It was confirmed that all items on the agenda would be considered in public. However a paper produced in relation to Item 5 - Major Review 2017/18 - Revision of the Air Quality Action Plan for the London Borough of Hillingdon was considered in Part II.

Agreed as an accurate record.

The Committee was provided with additional papers to help in the review.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on "Air Quality: outdoor air quality and health" provided information of road traffic related air pollution and its links to ill health. The paper provided details on how to improve air quality and so prevent a range of health conditions and deaths. 

Other documents provided to Members were

·           "Improving Air Quality in the City of London" which provided a practical guide for City businesses 

·         "What is a Low Emission Neighbourhood"

·           "Clean Air for Schools" - case studies of pilot projects, which Hillingdon was one of the three partners in the pilot.

·           Mayor of London's Healthy Streets Initiative

·           Selborne Road Air Quality Improvement Scheme

Dr Mike Holland, Member of the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution and the Council's Head of Planning and Enforcement attended the meeting to provide evidence to Members

Background to the Clean Air Act

The Committee was informed that the Clean Air Act 1956 was enacted in response to the "Great Smog" of London in 1952.   The Act introduced a number of measures which aimed to reduce air pollution, especially by introducing "smoke control areas" in some towns and cities in which only smokeless fuels could be burned.

By shifting homes' sources of heat towards cleaner coals, electricity, and gas, this reduced the amount of smoke pollution and sulphur dioxide from household fires.

Members were informed that this legislation was an important milestone in the development of a legal framework to protect the environment.

Reference was made to the impact on health of poor air quality and to studies which had proved that exposure to poor air quality resulted in cancers, respiratory problems such as asthma.

Poor air quality had been described as the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, known to have more severe effects on vulnerable groups, for example the elderly, children and people already suffering from poor health such as respiratory disease.

Reference was made to the development of the Air Quality Action Plan which would ensure that improvements to health were an important objective in terms of the outcomes of the actions to be included.

2004 Air Quality Action Plan

Dr Holland outlined to the Committee details of the 2004 Plan which was divided into the following areas:

·         Switching to cleaner transport modes

·         The tackling of through traffic

·         Promoting cleaner vehicle technology

·         Measures specific to Heathrow Airport

·         Measures concerning local businesses and industry

·         Making improvements through the planning system

·         Working with regional and central government

The Committee was informed that overall there had been improvements made to air quality as a result of the Action Plan.

For example, all schools in the Borough now had travel plans; there had been an increase in the number of dedicated cycle and walking paths. New developments were required to produce air quality assessments and include mitigation to reduce their impact on pollution. Reference was made to "AirText" which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

Noted.

Noted.