Air quality monitoring at the heart of a West Lothian town is set to end after 12 years, following a dramatic drop in pollution.
West Lothian Council’s Executive has agreed to end Broxburn's Air Quality Management area status, which has been monitoring the main street through the town.
The decision was made after results showed a dramatic drop in pollution levels, while officials said revoking the management order will save the council thousands of pounds a year.
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Speaking to the Executive meeting on Tuesday, Craig Smith, Environmental Health & Trading Standards Manager said: “As air quality... has been improving and meeting objectives it is appropriate for the council to begin the process to revoke this order and remove the air quality management area within Broxburn. The first step in this process will be to seek Scottish Government agreement to the proposal to revoke.”
Mr Smith’s report said: “Due to historical exceedances of air quality objectives, three air quality management areas were declared in West Lothian. These are still in place. The air quality management areas were declared in 2011 for Broxburn, and 2016 for Linlithgow, and Newton
He added: “Monitoring data has been showing a continuing improvement, and in recent years, levels consistently below the air quality objectives.
“There is no specifically identifiable reason for improvements in air quality over this time, but it is reasonable to assume that, as vehicle pollution is the most significant factor causing poorer air quality, the ‘greening’ of vehicles and newer, less polluting, vehicles on our roads will be a significant influence in the improvement noted.
The report added: “This could also be considered alongside changes in driving behaviour, move from diesel vehicles, less vehicle use and similar. There was also a noticeable change in air quality during periods of limited social engagement and people movement during the Covid pandemic.”
There’s no practical reason to sustain air quality monitoring any longer than is necessary.
Air quality monitoring is costly business and answering questions at an earlier council meeting Mr Smith told councillors in December that costs were “a sore point” adding that replacement costs for equipment were “excessive”.
Mr Smith told a committee: “Our bill for replacement kit last year because of faults was in the region of £50,000, and this year we’ll also be spending something like £20,000 to £30,000 in replacing kit. There’s also on-going testing in terms of diffusion tubes and that costs around £3,000 to £4,000 a year so there’s quite a lot of money spent on monitoring air quality in West Lothian.”
The air quality objectives being monitored are Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter which is 10 microns (µ) or smaller, and 2.5 microns (µ) or smaller (referred to as PM10 and PM2.5 respectively).
The latest readings put Broxburn in the lowest category for all three, for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5.
Over a number of years, within the Council’s Annual Progress report, it has been noted that NO2 levels are consistently below the Air Quality Objective annual mean level of 40 µgm-3 both at the automatic monitoring site and diffusion tube sites within Broxburn.
A table presented to the Executive showed results of NO2 monitoring results since 2010 in Broxburn of the (annual mean µgm-3 ) with the Automatic monitor in the town dropping from 43 annual mean µgm-3 in 2011 to 19 annual mean µgm-3 in 2020 [during the Covid lockdown] and 22 in 2021. Other monitoring sites in the east and west main street areas showed similar falls over the decade.
In his report to the Executive Mr Smith said: ”At this stage only Broxburn is able to proceed to further consideration for revocation. This is mainly due to procedural reasons as Linlithgow and Newton still have to complete finalised action plans, and this process will proceed for these areas in due course.”
The report concluded: “It is positive to note that air quality in Broxburn is meeting air quality objectives and has improved since the air quality management area was established in 2011.”
Further information on air pollution can be found on the council’s website: https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/34729/Air-Pollution.
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