Pollution hotspot on A52 through Spondon revoked in five minutes after 23 years

A five-minute Derby City Council meeting saw the air quality management area on the A52 through Spondon scrapped

Legal management of a Derby pollution hotspot on the A52 has been revoked after 23 years – with just five minutes of discussion and no debate, led by one lone councillor. A Derby City Council meeting today (October 4) had the sole purpose of discussing the proposed “revocation” of one of Derby’s two 23-year-old pollution hotspots.

This focused on the air quality management area for part of the A52 and Spondon which has been in place since 2001 and has been legally enforced as requiring urgent action to safeguard public health throughout that time. The zone covers the parts of the A52 stretching from the Gravel Pit Recreation Ground and Kirk Leys Avenue South to Fowler Avenue, as well as a stretch to the southeast along Derby Road and Nottingham Road, up to the junction with Willowcroft Road.

Karl Suschitzky, senior environmental health officer for the council, told the meeting that the air quality in the affected zone has “been compliant for many years now, for as many as 13 years”. He said the revocation of the air quality management area (AQMA) was delayed before the A52 improvement works “to consider the impact that may have on the network”.

Mr Suschitzky said: “We are well within the national objectives (for nitrogen dioxide levels) now at all the locations that we are monitoring. We are confident that it won’t be increasing again or be at risk of exceedance in the future when the general trend is a decline and particularly with the number of low emission vehicles on the roads.”

Cllr Nadine Peatfield, city council leader, who was the only councillor present at the meeting, said: “It is important to note that revocation of the AQMA does not inherently mean that air quality monitoring must stop at that location and so we don’t have any plans to stop monitoring even though it is formally revoked.” Mr Suschitzky said the council will “continue monitoring for the foreseeable future” and that a wider air quality action plan for the city included continued work to improve sustainable transport and encourage low-emission vehicles, along with management of the second of two AQMAs in the city.

Cllr Peatfield told the meeting: “Defra has written to us requesting that the AQMA is revoked immediately so with that in mind and bearing in mind that there is nobody here whatsoever to offer an alternative opinion I am going to take the recommendation to formally revoke the AQMA.” The council says a public consultation on the potential “revocation” of the AQMA saw “general support”.

Only 15 responses were received from members of the public, with most not offering a view either for or against the potential scrapping of the AQMA. Just five people agreed with the plans versus two against, portrayed by the council as 33 per cent supporting the plan and 13 per cent opposing it. Meanwhile, the council said it did not target any stakeholders for their views on the issue.

It says it will continue to assess planning applications in the area, including on the Derby Triangle development, for potential air quality impacts. The council says scrapping this AQMA has no impact on the city-wide air quality measures being rolled out, including the second zone which covers the inner and outer ring roads and Osmaston Road, adopted in 2001.

It claims reducing the speed limit on the A52 to 50mph has helped lessen traffic emissions and queuing. Officials wrote: “The council has operated NO2 monitoring in this part of the city for over 20 years. Over the last few years, a steady decline in concentrations has been observed, with no exceedances of the National Air Quality Objectives noted at any monitoring site since as far back as 2010.

“The key rationale and evidence for declaring and maintaining the Derby NO2 AQMA No.2 A52 no longer exists and therefore under the Environment Act, the AQMA should be revoked.”

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