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29
Aug
Harrogate poor air quality zone set to be revoked — but Knaresborough's remains
North Yorkshire Council looks set to revoke an air quality management area in Harrogate.
The UK government requires local authorities to take action to improve locations with particularly bad air quality.
Wetherby Road, at the Woodlands junction, is currently a designated air quality management area due to high traffic levels.
It was declared in 2017 after breaching the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide.
However, a council report says the designation is set to be revoked this year due to declining levels of air pollution over the last 12 months.
It says:
Wetherby Road, Harrogate, [was] declared 2017 for exceedances of the limit for NO2 at the first floor flat above a pub.
Concentrations increased following a change in road layout, but have since decreased to under the objective.
The report is set to be put before the council's transport, economy, environment and enterprise scrutiny committee on September 4.
Should the area on Wetherby Road be revoked, it would leave the Harrogate district with one air quality management area — at Bond End in Knaresborough.
Bond End in Knaresborough.
The council has monitored air pollution at Bond End since 2010.
In September 2018, North Yorkshire County Council replaced two sets of traffic lights at Bond End with a double mini-roundabout to reduce congestion and improve the flow of traffic.
As previously reported, the council suggested that the management area in Knaresborough could be revoked last year due to falling nitrogen dioxide levels.
However, in the report due before councillors next week, the authority has not suggested to remove air quality monitoring in the area.
Meanwhile, the council has revoked two management areas at York Place in Knaresborough and Low and High Skellgate in Ripon.
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