What are we doing to improve air quality?

Since 2005 we have declared 10 'Air Quality Management Areas' (AQMAs) where objectives for nitrogen dioxide were not being met. These are all located on busy roads, mostly near junctions. You can find out more about these on our AQMA page.

Since the first Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) for Southampton City Council was adopted, steady improvements in all AQMAs have been monitored.

Our latest Air Quality Action Plan sets out what measures we'll implement and explore between 2023 and 2028 to continue to improve air quality in these AQMAs and for the rest of the city. The plan can be found on the reports page.

Progress towards meeting objectives in AQMAs and a list of management measures are presented through a regular ‘Annual Status Report’. These can also be found on the reports page.

Our Clean Air Strategy sets out our board approach to improving air quality in the city, including principles, priority areas and commitments up to 2025.

We were one of the first five local authorities in the UK required by central Government to see if a charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was needed to meet air quality standards in the shortest possible time. A charging zone would involve owners of certain vehicles needing to pay if they used them in the city.

To see if a charging CAZ was necessary, we undertook a study to see how future levels of pollutants might change under different types of CAZs as well as a ‘do minimum’ scenario. The study concluded that compliance with standards could be achieved without a charging scheme. 

We submitted our full business case to central government which set out that a charging CAZ would not be necessary, instead, a series of non-charging measures, known as ‘The Local NO2 Plan’ would be implemented to help ensure that standards are met in the shortest possible time, without the impacts of a charging scheme.

Central government approved our business case to implement The Local NO2 Plan instead of a charging CAZ in February 2019 and we have been carrying out the measures included in it since. These include:

• Upgrading 145 Southampton licensed buses with emission reduction technology so that they meet the cleanest diesel emission standard
• Requiring city buses maintain the cleanest standard of diesel
• Requiring newly licensed and relicensed taxis to meet at least the cleanest standard of diesel from 2021
• Running The Low Emission Taxi Incentive scheme which offered up to £3,000 off-licensing costs for drivers who switched from an older, more polluting vehicle to a low emission alternative. Now over 52% of the taxi and private hire fleet are hybrids or electrics
• Installing two taxi-only rapid chargers to support electric taxis
• Enhancing the Sustainable Distribution Centre which helps reduce the number of lorries moving around the city by ‘consolidating’ partly empty lorries into fewer, fuller vehicles
• Working with businesses to establish ‘Delivery and Service Plans’. These reduce emissions associated with a business by using last mile delivery techniques and cleaner technology including electric vans and cargo bikes
• Implementing a targeted active and sustainable travel behaviour change scheme on the Eastern Approach

Updates to The Plan

While the plan has now been implemented in line with central government’s expectations, two amendments have been made as a result of consultation, impacts from the COVID19 pandemic and discussions with central government.

Two measures have been amended. One change is regarding ‘bus lane authorisation for Southampton taxis’ and one regarding ‘bus standard conditions’. These were submitted to central government, setting out why the previous measure was inappropriate to implement and why the alternative is preferred. The alternative presented in the requests were approved through a ‘ministerial decision’ letter. These now form a part of The Local NO₂ Plan.

The Green City Charter details the challenging goals we have set ourselves to create a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable city. In March 2020, we announced the Green City Plan that identifies the outcomes and activities we want to achieve in the next three years. One of the five themes is ‘Delivering Clean Air’ which builds on our existing plans and strategies. A key commitment of this theme is to look beyond compliance with objectives and strive to achieve continual improvements in air quality for the benefit of public health.

As part of Our Green City commitments, our existing Air Quality Action Plan will be renewed. This will involve evaluating how larger scale measures including workplace parking levies, localised road closure and emissions based parking charges might help make further meaningful improvements to air quality.

Find out more about our Our Green City.