Air pollution to be measured at busy road in Blackpool

Data has shown that while Blackpool does not suffer as badly as other places from air pollution, it is a factor in up to 75 deaths a year in the town.

The equipment will be sited on Whitegate Drive, close to the junction with Glenroyd Close, which is one of the town’s main north-south traffic routes.

Blackpool Council planners have given permission for the site after an application was made by testing company Bureau Veritas, which is carrying out a nationwide expansion of monitoring sites on behalf of the Environment Agency and DEFRA.

The Whitegate Drive monitoring station will form part of the UK-wide Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) which consists of more than 170 sites across the UK.

It will be used to detect fine particles including PM2.5 which are mainly a result of vehicle traffic, and can cause respiratory damage when levels in the air are high.

Additional air quality monitoring stations are being installed across Englandin response to the adoption of the Environment Act.

Application documents says: “This enhancement to the existing AURN is based around the monitoring of PM2.5 which is harmful to human health.

“The Environment Act sets a requirement for new targets/limit values to be set with regard to PM2.5 concentrations in specific areas, this enhancement to the AURN is to make up part of the evidence base to compare monitored concentrations against these new targets.”

Mapping indicates the two areas of Blackpool most likely to be affected by higher levels of pollution are around the Hawes Side area, and around Talbot Road/Queenstown area.

Meanwhile figures from Public Health England show 4.3 per cent of deaths amongst Blackpool residents are estimated to be attributable to poor air quality which equates to around 75 deaths each year.

The council has produced an Air Quality Strategy with proposals including the introduction of electric buses to reduce harmful emissions.

Blackpool was awarded £20m of government funding towards buying 115 electric buses following a successful bid to the Department for Transport’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) fund.