West Oxfordshire District Council

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Air quality

Local air quality management, Draft Witney Air Quality Action Plan and Executive Summary control of industrial emissions, radon, making an application for a permit or notifying of a change to an existing permit

Control of industrial emissions

The Council is responsible for permitting certain smaller industrial processes (Part B processes) and conditions are applied to control air pollution. The Environment Agency is responsible for larger industrial process and conditions apply to control air, land and water pollution for these installations.

Part B Process details within West Oxfordshire are provided.

Local air quality management

The UK government has produced The United Kingdom Air Quality Strategy 2007 as a requirement to improve areas of poor air quality, reduce any remaining significant risks to health and to achieve the wider objectives of sustainable development regarding air quality in the UK.

The pollutants of concern for local air quality management are:

Nitrogen dioxide
Fine particles
Carbon monoxide
Sulphur dioxide
Benzene
1,3 Butadiene
Lead
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons
Ozone

Areas in the district not meeting the objective for nitrogen dioxide:

Bridge Street, Witney (subject of current consultation)
Horsefair and High Street Chipping Norton.

Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) have been declared and an Action Plan is in place for Chipping Norton and one is under consultation for Witney. An integral part of the Witney Action Plan is a local traffic relief scheme - the Cogges Link Road. The full report of this scheme is available to view on the web pages of Oxfordshire County Council. The Environmental Statement and Air Quality Assessment is provided.

The Air Quality Action Plan page details the draft work on the Chipping Norton Action Plan and you can view and print off the AQMA location plans and previous air quality reports from the right-hand downloads section of this page.

Pollutant information

Information about the chemistry and effects of the air pollutants can also be found under the Downloads section.

Radon

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas. It has no taste, smell or colour; in fact, special devices are needed to detect it. Radon is everywhere, usually at low levels that pose negligible risk. However, some households in West Oxfordshire contain radon at levels that may affect health. We hold information about the risk of Radon in the district. You may wish to visit the UK Radon website where you can learn more about Radon and order a Radon test kit.