All local authorities in England must produce a local air quality strategy, as required by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs . This document fulfils that requirement for Hart.
Local authorities must also regularly review and assess air quality in their area to check whether national air quality objectives are being met. Hart District Council meets this duty through its annual status report, which forms part of the local air quality management (LAQM) system. This system is set out in Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 and updated by the Environment Act 2021, along with the relevant national policy and technical guidance.
The air quality objectives in England
The statutory air quality objectives applicable to LAQM in England are:
Nitrogen dioxide is a gas which is generally emitted from high-temperature combustion processes such as road transport or energy generation.
- Below 40μg/m3 annual mean
- 200μg/m3 not to be exceeded more than 18 times a year one-hour mean
Particulate Matter (PM) is everything in the air that is not a gas and as such it is made up from a huge variety of chemical compounds and materials.
- 35% reduction in population exposure compared with the average population exposure baseline period (2016-2018)
- 10μg/m3 not to be exceeded at any relevant monitoring station by 31 December 2040
Remaining air quality objectives in England
| Particles (PM10) 50µg/m³ not to be exceeded more than 35 times a year, measured as a 24-hour mean. 40µg/m³ measured as an annual mean. |
Ozone 100µg/m³ not to be exceeded more than 10 times a year, measured as a running 8-hour mean. |
| Sulphur dioxide 350µg/m³ not to be exceeded more than 24 times a year, measured as a 1-hour mean. 125µg/m³ not to be exceeded more than 3 times a year, measured as a 24-hour mean. 266µg/m³ not to be exceeded more than 35 times a year, measured as a 15-minute mean. |
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons 0.25ng/m³ measured as an annual mean, expressed as benzo[a]pyrene. |
| Benzene 5µg/m³ measured as an annual mean. |
1,3-butadiene 2.25µg/m³ measured as a running annual mean. |
| Carbon monoxide 10mg/m³ measured as a running 8-hour mean. |
Lead 0.5µg/m³ measured as an annual mean. 0.25µg/m³ measured as an annual mean. |
Why air quality is important
Breathing in polluted air affects our health and costs the NHS and our society billions of pounds each year. Not everyone is affected by poor air quality the same. Vulnerable groups include children, the elderly and those with exisiting conditions.