Air Quality
To receive a presentation from Mitch Sanders, Service Director Transactions and Universal Services and Debbie Chase, Consultant in Public Health.
Minutes:
The Board received a presentation from Mitch Sanders, Service Director Transactions and Universal Services and Debbie Chase, Consultant in Public Health on Air Quality.
The Board noted that a plan for Air Quality in the City had been in place since 2007 but had recently become a higher priority following the City being identified as 1 of 5 Cities exceeding EU Limits. As such a statutory requirement had been put in place to be a Clean Air Zone by 2020 and DEFRA had issued guidance on restrictions that must be imposed which for the moment related to commercial vehicles. It was noted that if the restrictions were not in place then there were significant EU financial penalties albeit Brexit was now in place and associated outcomes of that however that did not detract from the Public Health element which was important.
The Board also noted that the Local Authority had been successful in a number of bids which resulted in £13M for the City to implement the approved Clean Air Strategy which sat under the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and alongside transport and other significant plans. The Board further noted that there had been a lot of analysis of best practice and an evaluation process on impact and as such plans were now in the “implementation” phase which was seeing additional staffing and teams put in place to deliver services and ensure initiatives had impact.
The Board noted that Cllr Hammond was the Lead Member and there was a project board in place which Debbie Chase was a member of and would provide the link and feed into the H&WBB.