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The Highland Council has recently installed an automatic air quality monitoring unit on Queensgate in Inverness City Centre.  The unit, obtained via a capital grant from the Scottish Government Local Air Quality Management Fund, will monitor Nitrogen dioxide pollutant concentrations within the recently declared Inverness City Centre Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).  

The AQMA was declared in September 2014 and identified an area around the Queensgate and Academy Street junction where UK and Scottish Government objectives for the pollutant Nitrogen dioxide were not being met.

The Council’s Environmental Health Manager Alan Yates said: “The data received from the equipment will be crucial to monitoring progress towards compliance with the UK Air Quality Objectives within the Air Quality Management Area.

“To coincide with the installation of the equipment, we have begun consulting with members of the public and stakeholders on a draft Air Quality Action Plan as part of the Council’s duty under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) provisions of the Environment Act."

The draft plan identifies measures which the Council will pursue in order to reduce the pollutant concentration within the AQMA.  Measures are grouped into 6 broad areas of action:

• Action 1:  Promote Smarter Travel Choices.
• Action 2:  Actively promote low emission vehicles and supporting infrastructure
• Action 3:  Use the planning system to ensure that air quality is fully considered for new development.
• Action 4:  Traffic management to reduce emissions at location within the AQMA.
• Action 5:  Communication to inform the public about health impacts of air pollution and how they can change behaviour to reduce emissions and exposure.
• Action 6:  Continue to monitor and assess air quality in line with Government guidance on LAQM.

The draft action plan can be viewed at: http://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1281/pollution/73/pollution/2 

It is also available at the Environmental Health Office, 38 Harbour Road, Inverness. IV1 1UF.

Responses can be entered at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/inverness-air-quality-plan.

Alternatively they can be posted to Environmental Health Office, 38 Harbour Road, Inverness. IV1 1UF.

The consultation will close on th October 2016.