Interview with:

·  The Assistant Director of Environmental Services, Steve Goulette;

·  The Pollution Team Leader, Steve Wilcock; and

·  The Senior Pollution Officer, John Newington.

The Committee welcomed Mr Goulette, the Assistant Director of Environmental Services, Mr Wilcock, the Pollution Team Leader and Mr Newington, the Senior Pollution Officer to their meeting.  Following a brief introduction from the witnesses outlining the progress and outstanding actions with regard to air quality management, the Committee discussed the following:

·  Funding bids to Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) had been successful and the Council had received £3,600 for Traffic Assessment, £6,145 for further assessment work and £7,700 for health impact assessments;

·  The Air Quality Management Area had been declared to Defra in August 2008 and the further assessment work had to be undertaken within one year of this declaration;

·  The Further Assessment work would be completed by August 2009 and the Action Plan would be completed by April 2010.  An updated screening assessment that would identify any new areas of exceedances was also due to be completed by April 2010;

·  Delays in producing the Air Quality Action Plan had arisen as a result of awaiting the recently announced Defra guidance.  Other Local Authority’s Action Plans had been similarly delayed.  The guidance had placed more emphasis on measurable and quantifiable results in the Action Plan;

·  Air Quality was continually monitored in the Borough and results were available on the air quality network online.  Members requested that this web address be circulated to all Councillors. Sulphur dioxide was being monitored at a Detling site to determine whether this pollutant was coming from outside the Borough.  They were not aware of places in the Borough that would emit high sulphur dioxide pollutants;

·  The bus station had not shown to be an area of air quality exceedance however the Council was continuing to discuss air quality with the bus operators.  Members noted the Park and Ride fleet bus emissions met a top European Standard and queried the emissions of the service buses intended to be used as part of the Park and Ride Service;

·  The importance of partnership working in improving air quality.  This highlighted that the Air Quality Transport Steering Group had been formulated to develop and monitor the Action Plan.  The Group included the Cabinet Member for Environment, consultants, Kent County Council Transport Officers and internal departments such as Planning Policy and Sustainable Communities;

·  The ambition to produce a Supplementary Planning Document to feed into the Local Development Framework on pollution issues.  Members expressed their full support of this initiative;

·  The benefits of the variable speed limit on the M20 junctions 5-7 achieved by controlling traffic movement included reduced congestion and subsequently improved air quality.  It was anticipated that the limit would be enforceable in September 2009.  The Committee agreed that Officers should continue to lobby the Highways Agency to ensure the order is put in place by this date;

·  Improvements to congestion in the town centre had been achieved through the Urban Management Control System;

·  The Committee reiterated their previous request for the draft Air Quality Action Plan to be presented to the Committee prior to the plan being approved by Cabinet.

The Chairman thanked the witnesses for an informative presentation.

The Web cast from this session is available at http://clients.westminster-digital.co.uk/maidstone/archive.aspx (01.27.25 to 02.21.05).

Resolved:  That

a)  The draft Air Quality Action Plan be considered by the Committee prior to its approval by Cabinet; 

b)  The Air Quality Network web address be circulated to all Councillors;

c)  The Highways Agency be lobbied to ensure the variable speed limit order is put in place by September 2009;

d)  Officers ensure that a Supplementary Planning Document with regard to pollution issues is produced in time to feed into the Local Development Framework; and

e)  Information with regard to what European Standard the Service Buses used for Park and Ride Service meet be circulated to the Committee.