RBWM is 'losing nothing' by scrapping air quality risk zone watch list, insists leader

The council has insisted the borough is ‘not losing anything’ by scrapping its air quality risk zone watch list – amid concerns that it is reneging on its duties to protect people’s health.

In May, cabinet voted to revoke all five Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) across the borough, after data showed they are no longer necessary.

An AQMA is a zone where the council has found air pollution levels exceed legal limits set by the Government, and it is required to monitor them closely and take action to improve air quality.

Once these levels drop below that threshold, a local authority can scrap its AQMAs and instead take a broader overview of its air quality – which is what cabinet opted to do.

But several Royal Borough councillors criticised both the data and the process of collecting it, ‘calling in’ the decision to an overview and scrutiny panel, the job of which is to dig deep into the reasoning for any decision.

As such, at a place overview and scrutiny panel on Tuesday, council officers explained their reasoning – not before some questions from the public.

Dave Scarborough from the Climate Emergency Coalition acknowledged the good news of emissions having reduced but urged the council not to be ‘complacent’.

“We know there’s going to be a lot more building work, especially in Maidenhead, and that means that we’re going to get much more air pollution, so we do need to keep track of that,” he said.

He added that measures to reduce emissions ‘need much more education and communication.’

“So often we see mums with buggies behind cars where the child is right at the level of the exhaust. You talk to them and they have no understanding whatsoever,” he said.

Maidenhead campaigner Andrew Hill was more pointed in his objections, saying it was ‘too soon to think about removing the AQMAs’.

“It costs you literally nothing to keep the AQMAs in place. All it does is force developers to consider human health more deeply and more seriously,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Carole Da Costa (WWRA, Clewer and Dedworth West) raised concerns that there is no monitoring in areas of deprivation.

“We know that people who live in lower social economic areas are most deeply impacted and their lives are shortened by air quality being poorer,” she said.

More than one commentator also expressed discontent that there had not been a public consultation on the decision.

But officers reassured the committee that the change is a ‘very positive thing.’

Amanda Gregory, assistant director of housing, environmental health and public protection, said: “We’re not really losing anything. AQMAs didn’t give us any extra enforcement powers. It just focused our actions onto those specific areas.

“The new strategy focuses on the whole borough, so I think it’s an improvement.”

Leader of the council Simon Werner echoed this, saying a plan to scrap the AQMAs was rejected last year because there was no new strategy – and now there is one.

“This strategy is better monitoring all over the borough, rather than just in the historic locations where we did have a problem,” he said.

“I fail to understand why anybody would be against it.”