CROSS STREET, SUDBURY: BABERGH DESIGNATES AN AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT AREA

After analysing the results from air quality tests along a number of Sudbury roads, Babergh District Council is set to establish an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) along part of the town’s Cross Street. More detailed monitoring will soon take place to pinpoint the precise causes and extent of the pollution.

A report going before next Tuesday’s (1st July) Overview & Scrutiny (Community Services) Committee, details the findings of the Council’s initial monitoring of nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the air along Cross, Church and Ballingdon Streets. It was found that higher than desired levels may be in evidence along Cross Street from its junction with Church Street up to house numbers 5 and 89.

Babergh is legally required to declare an AQMA within four months of results showing above average concentrations of various types of pollution within a particular area. In the case of the affected part of Cross Street that will be set up from the end of September and will only be lifted once the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide have fallen to or below their target levels.

According to James Buckingham, Babergh’s Principal Environmental Protection Officer, “Babergh is writing to residents explaining the Council’s plans and requesting their co-operation in siting the more sensitive equipment that will be used over the next 18 months to pinpoint the pollution hotspots. Babergh has also made a bid to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for a grant to pay for this state-of-the-art equipment”.

The results of this second stage of monitoring will allow Babergh to work with Suffolk County Council’s Environment and Transport Department in identifying specific ways of reducing the pollutants.

See report and more information on air quality management.