The Review and Assessment of Air Quality

The Environmental Act 1995 introduced legislation for local management of air quality. Part IV of the Act introduced a statutory duty for local authorities to review and assess the air quality within their districts and to identify those areas where further local measures will be required to achieve the air quality standards and objectives.

The National Air Quality Strategy was published in March 1997, establishing standards for eight key pollutants and outlining national and international policies to reduce air pollution levels. 
The Air Quality Regulations 1997 set the statutory objectives for local authorities for 7 air pollutants, with ozone being omitted, to be achieved by 2005. The objectives have been set based on the pollutant effect on human health. Thus the result of the regulations is to diminish the impact of air pollution on humans and those particularly those susceptible to elevated pollution levels by 2005. 
Epping Forest District is required to review and assess the air quality within our boundaries. The primary objectives for the review and assessment is to identify those areas where national policies alone appear unlikely to deliver the national air quality objectives by 2005 and to ensure that air quality considerations are integrated into local authority policies and decision making processes. 
The review and assessment has a 3 phased approach. The first stage involves identifying sources of the pollutants, which may affect national objectives being met within the District. For any pollutants identified as possibly being a problem, then a more detailed second stage is required which would identify any requirements for advanced monitoring and modelling in a 3rd stage review.