Drop in pollution on A483 near Oswestry

The home, Gate House at the junction on the A483 at Sweeny, near Oswestry, has been the subject of monitoring for more than 10 years due to the prospect of pollution from passing cars and lorries.

Shropshire Council's cabinet will consider the request to revoke the air quality management area (AQMA) on the property after investigations revealed that levels of pollution have fallen, and are not likely to increase.

A report from Karen Collier, regulatory services operations manager, states: "In 2004 an AQMA was declared covering a single property known as Gate House located at the junction on the A483, Sweeny, Oswestry, SY10 8AA in line with duties prescribed in the Environment Act 1995. The AQMA was declared due to a likely breach of the annual mean nitrogen dioxide national air quality objective of 40 µg/m3.

"This was due to there being a residential receptor presenting relevant exposure within one metre of the kerbside of a busy trunk road, the A483. This road generally takes a large amount of traffic with a significant proportion of HGVs."

The report concludes that there has been no breach of pollution levels for 10 years.

It states: "A review of monitoring data from the Updating and Screening Assessment in 2015 highlighted the fact that the concentration of nitrogen dioxide had dropped in recent years. As a result, a detailed assessment was undertaken to establish if there was any likelihood of any national objective level being breached. A review of all monitoring data at the location representative of the Oswestry AQMA was undertaken. The review demonstrated no breach of the annual nitrogen dioxide objective for 10 consecutive years; pollutant levels such as nitrogen dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts have slowly reduced over this time."

Ms Collier's report also concludes there is no prospect for the levels to increase in the near future.

It states: "No major development is proposed in the area and therefore it is not expected that transport numbers will change significantly in future years. National data suggests that vehicle numbers will increase incrementally over future years however due to improvements in emission standards for vehicles entering the market these improvements are expected to compensate for increased traffic numbers. It is not expected that any significant increases in air pollutant are likely in future."

Shropshire Council's cabinet will consider the report at a meeting on Wednesday.