Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) – Temple Cloud

Representatives of Temple Cloud with Cameley Parish Council met with BANES Officers from the Environmental Monitoring Team on Tuesday to find out more about the AQMA for Temple Cloud. Background Under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995, the District Council are required to review and assess air quality. In Temple Cloud, Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) concentrations are monitored using diffusion tubes which provide monthly average concentrations. Monitoring data is then compared to National Air Quality Objectives. For NO₂ there are two objectives:

• 40µg/m³ is the annual average.
• 200µg/m³ (18 exceedances) is the hourly average.

Where exceedances of these objectives occur, an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) is declared, and then an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) is developed to identify actions to reduce the NO₂ concentrations. Temple Cloud Air Quality Management Area

• Monitoring in Temple Cloud has recorded exceedances of the NO₂ objectives and an AQMA has therefore been declared.
• A public consultation exercise on the AQMA boundary was carried out between 14 February and 23 March 2018. The full consultation report is available online here.
• The overall project now focuses on drafting the Air Quality Action Plan where potential actions and measures suggested by residents during the consultation and others identified by the team will be considered. The team are looking at a range of hard measures (road widening to improve the flow of traffic) and soft measures (to help reduce exposure). Officers are also trying to secure funding so that options can be assessed externally for their viability and effectiveness. This will help ensure that the best measures are identified.
• A further round of consultation will take place once the range of options has been considered.

Short term measures Ventilate your home from the side / away from the road to draw in clean air. Prioritise ventilation from 1^st floor upwards – this is cleaner air. Don’t stop walking and cycling – time exposure is minimal when walking or cycling through the AQMA and exposure is less compared to being inside a car. What you can do to help BANES Officers are appealing for ideas to tackle the pollution in the Temple Cloud Air Quality Management Area. The Team have asked that residents make contact with them directly with any ideas about what actions could be taken. The team are open to all suggestions – no matter how creative the idea may seem! Please send your ideas to the team by email: Environmental_monitoring@bathnes.gov.uk or contact Lucy Boulton, Public Protection Officer (Environmental Monitoring) by phone on 01225 396493. You can also visit www.bathnes.gov.uk/tcbreathe for more information. Clean Air Plan, Bath BreATHes 2021  Since 2002 BANES Officers have been monitoring pollution levels at the roadside in Bath. BANES Council have now launched a Clean Air Plan for Bath, with a view to introducing a Clean Air Charging Zone that’s capable of reducing NO2 in the city by 2021 at the latest. The council has drawn up a shortlist of three options which they believe are capable of bringing about the required improvements by 2021. No decisions have been made at this time, but the council are legally bound to reach a decision on a final package of measures by December 2018. This will affect everyone, so please get involved. You can have your say here: http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/bath-breathes-2021/get-involved This update follows a meeting with Lucy Boulton and Dr Nicola Courthold, Public Protection Officers (Environmental Monitoring) at Bath and North East Somerset Council, which took place on Tuesday with representatives of the Parish Council. A summary will be provided at the October Parish Council Meeting which will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 10 October 2018 at Temple Cloud Village Hall. Residents are welcome and there is a dedicated public participation session at the start of the meeting.