Air Quality in New Development

This Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was adopted on 1 June 2022.

An adoption statement has been prepared which accompanies the SPD.

Air pollution impacts on everyone's health and is a major public health concern with the young, elderly and those with chronic health conditions being particularly susceptible. Air quality is therefore a material consideration within the planning regime. To make development acceptable we will expect mitigation measures to be implemented by the applicant to reduce emissions to air from all proposed development.

This SPD provides supplementary guidance to the Local Plan for the New Forest District Council area. In particular it provides guidance to support Objective SO2 (Biodiversity and environmental quality) and Policy CCC1 (Safe and healthy communities) which aims to prevent pollution or hazards which prejudice the health or safety of communities.

The SPD provides guidance on when an Air Quality Assessment will be needed to support a planning application and what the assessment needs to address. It also confirms when an Air Quality Statement is required. Where necessary to enable development to take place, appropriate mitigation measures will be required, the document contains suggested mitigation measures.

If as part of your development you are required to submit an air quality statement we have a template document which can be completed and returned to us:

Air Quality Statement Template (Word doc) [121KB]

If you have any queries please email:

policyandplans@nfdc.gov.uk

As part of the document's preparation we held a consultation which closed on 1 April 2022. A schedule of all the responses received has been prepared and how they were taken in to account by us in the final document. You can view our Consultation Statement, Schedule of Responses, and Adoption Statement below.

Consultation Statement May 2022 (PDF) [162KB]

Schedule of comments received and our response (PDF) [237KB]

Adoption Statement June 2022 (PDF) [114KB]