Read the abstract of his paper below.
Abstract
A Critique of the Local Air Quality
Management Process in the United Kingdom.
James Longhurst, Jo Barnes, Enda Hayes and
Tim Chatterton
University of the West of England, Bristol,
U.K
This presentation will provide an
overview of the current position of Local Air Quality Management as practiced
in the United Kingdom. It will assess the current approach within a perspective
drawn from an analysis of historical attempts to manage air pollution, provide
a diagnosis of the current situation and offer a prognosis for the future management of air quality.
Specifically
the paper will ask why, despite our
knowledge of harm, do we continue to do little to change the behaviours that cause air pollution problems? It is
recognized that the cause of air quality problems in the UK is almost, but not
exclusively, traffic related. This is a function of our desire for
personal mobility without thought for the consequences of our decisions and
actions on the health, wellbeing and environments shared with
fellow citizens.
National air pollution control actions are well
defined and appropriate for lowering the overall burden of air pollution but
the spatial patterns of air pollution are not uniformly distributed
across the UK space and thus not simply a question of overall burden. Rather it
is a picture of burden concentrated in selected areas with the consequences
often – but not always- borne by the more disadvantaged or weakest communities.
This burden is, of course, inflicted upon them by the travel habits of others.
National pollution control actions, often as part of EU requirements, have improved
individual vehicle emissions per kilometer travelled, and reduced industrial
and power station emissions through improved combustion techniques or post
combustion control. This is necessary action but not sufficient to address the
scale and complexity of the problems. Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) is
the process carried out by UK local authorities to identify areas of poor air
quality through a review and assessment process. Having identified such areas
according to guidance and regulation provided by central government, a local
authority declares an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and develops and
Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP). However, some 60% of UK local authorities now
have one or more AQMAs and in such areas, widely distributed across the UK
space, concentrations continue to exceed targets and public health is
affected. The AQAP component of LAQM is intended to improve local air
quality but clearly has failed to deliver its intended policy
goals. That this situation continues, despite action from the late
1990s and a policy intention that all parts of the UK space will have achieved
air quality objectives identified by Government by 2005, can be considered a
failure of political will nationally and locally and hence it can be
described as a mismanagement of air quality. This continues to occur despite
compelling and growing evidence about the spatial extent of the problem, the
magnitude of the concentrations and the impact on public health.
