Almost 2,000 North Lincolnshire homes to remain in air quality zone
It follows an annual review
Last updated 29th Nov 2023
About 1,700 Scunthorpe residential properties will remain part of a zone to improve air quality, as agreed as a proposed action at North Lincolnshire Council’s cabinet.
Councils are required to publish annual air pollution reviews. While there have been improvements in recent years, about 2.4 per cent of North Lincolnshire residential properties will remain in an air quality zone.
Parts of Scunthorpe continue to have days of high levels of PM10 size particles, above or near exceedance of targets. To achieve the aim of reducing PM10 levels, the council will continue to work with industry, the Environment Agency and UK Health Security Agency via the Local Industry Forum.
“There have been improvements in air quality in recent years, I’m pleased to say, said Cllr David Rose, cabinet member for environment. He highlighted how Low Santon was taken out of an air quality management area five years ago and Scunthorpe’s reduced in size back then.
Scunthorpe’s air quality management area covers half of the town and to its immediate east, and includes the steelworks. The council had put to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) its aims to improve air quality in the next year reported Cllr Rose, and it was indicated DEFRA were happy with these.
Labour opposition leader Cllr Len Foster welcomed the direction of travel on air quality but asked what improvements were aimed for with the air quality management area. Cllr Rose replied that “our role really is one of partnership working” as the council lacks the regulatory powers over air quality that belong to the Environment Agency.
Cllr Max Bell asked for the council’s steps to improve public transport and suggested Cllr Rose was “sort of passing the buck to the Environment Agency”.
“I resent the comment about passing the buck to the Environment Agency,” replied Cllr Rose. “That’s merely the regulatory situation we find ourselves in.”
As for Cllr Bell’s public transport focus, cabinet members said £3m was invested in buses each year and the first meeting of the area’s bus enhance partnership happened earlier in the week.
The council last year invested in more kit to monitor air quality and has placed an emphasis on working with industry to improve it. But Cllr Waltham was keen to emphasise it did not want to burden heavy industry to the point of risking job losses.
“We do not want heavy industry jobs to be compromised, but we do encourage heavy industry to manage their output.”
Earlier this year, British Steel closed its Scunthorpe coke blast furnaces as it transitioned to be greener. Ironically, the closure led to residents reporting in the immediate days afterward an unusual amount of dust appearing to fall locally.
This led to the town’s MP Holly Mumby-Croft issuing a message on social media to advise it was believed to be linked to the coke furnaces’ shutdown and an expected normal consequence of it.