3. Air Quality in the New Forest District
3.1 In broad terms the air quality in the New Forest is generally good and is reflected in the air quality statistics reported by New Forest District Council and Public Health England.
3.2 The Council has a duty to continually review and assess the air quality in its district following Government guidance under the Local Air Quality Management regime. The Council, in accordance with Government guidance, reports on local air quality on an annual basis in the Annual Status Report. This includes reporting on the monitoring undertaken across the district using automatic and passive monitoring sites.
The main concerns regarding impacts on local air quality in the New Forest are from:
- increases in vehicles on the local road network (nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM))
- industrial developments (NO2, PM and sulphur dioxide (SO2))
- mineral extraction sites (NO2 and PM)
- construction sites (PM)
3.3 Local air quality is assessed against air quality objectives set by Government for named pollutants and over noted assessment periods. If air quality objectives are being, or are likely to be breached, the Council has a duty to declare an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and produce an Action Plan to reduce pollutant concentrations in pursuit of the objective being breached.
3.4 There is currently one declared AQMA in Lyndhurst (outside the planning area covered by this SPD) for the likely exceedance of the nitrogen dioxide annual mean objective due to emissions from vehicles.
3.5 The latest report which includes the most recent and validated monitoring results can be found at: https://www.newforest.gov.uk/airquality
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