Air Quality Assessments in Manchester

Environmental Quality Across the City of Manchester

By 2023, the population of the metropolitan area of Manchester was above 2.75 million, completing an increase of 0.76% from the year before. Around 47% of Greater Manchester is designated as Green Belt land and 1,500 brownfield sites are situated within the county, opening up a multitude of potential development options. The city itself is constantly growing, helped by numerous plans by the local council and independent developers to stage planning projects throughout the area, allowing for more locations to live and work all over Manchester.

As with a significant number of areas all over the UK, local roads throughout Greater Manchester suffer high levels of air pollution, contributing to the creation of new medical conditions, the worsening of existing medical conditions, and playing a role in early deaths. A Clean Air Plan from the council submits a selection of aims, including focusing on methods of improving the air quality on roads with a proven history of being particularly harmful, lowering the legal limits of air quality, managing traffic flow in an eco-friendly way, offering grants to taxi drivers to purchase clean vehicles, and switching to electric buses.

How Air Quality Harms Development Works

The subject of air quality is often valued as an important one in development, but an additional emphasis is likely to be added when it involves cities and other locations that are known for producing high levels of pollution. While efforts to counteract the current levels of air pollution and prevent future issues are in action across Manchester, even the steps put forward by the local authority won’t mean that developers are void of responsibility when it comes to ensuring that their land or property development won’t cause air pollution or suffer as a result of air pollutants.

In order to cater to an array of purposes involving air pollution, dust, odour and other factors that could interfere with clean air, multiple forms of air quality assessments are available. It is also applicable to offer such a collection of possible surveys due to the ways in which air quality can be affected. For example, it is just as likely for poor air quality in an area to disrupt a development, people involved in the construction work or future inhabitants as it is for air pollutants from the construction work itself to disrupt the local area’s previously clean air.

Developers don’t have the option of disregarding a need for any surveys to support planning such as air quality assessments and simply pleading ignorance, as it will actually result in potentially severe penalties and any length of delay to their plans. Instead, the advisable step forward would be to reach out to Arbtech, speak to our team about applicable air quality inspections, and allow us to guide you with how best to progress. With our help and support, you will be able to navigate through the planning process and come away with a successful application for planning consent.

Categories of Air Quality Surveys

Under a high percentage of circumstances, a detailed air quality assessment would be used as a method of lifting qualitative and quantitative data from a development site in regard to matters affecting air quality. Dispersion modelling technology is used during an air quality assessment, and the survey itself is common among new developments that are large in size or scale and any schemes that could interfere with sensitive locations that are registered as air quality management areas (AMAs). Site suitability assessments also utilise dispersion modelling but with a focus on data relating to road traffic emissions instead of general air pollution.

A similarity between an air quality assessment and an air quality statement exists too, with the main difference between the two being that one concludes with an air quality report and the other with an environmental statement chapter. Indoor air quality plans and assessments facilitate the analysis of air quality across interior structures and buildings. Catering to the unpredictable nature of development, ongoing changes to air quality internally or externally can also be surveilled over a minimum period of three months through air quality monitoring based on the guidance of DEFRA.

Various materials may be present on a development site, such as dust, nitrogen dioxide, odour and particulate matter, and as such, adequate dust management, sniff tests and other assessments designed to deal with such elements are pivotal. Non-invasive inspections are also an option, such as a preliminary air quality constraints assessment for checking existing records via a simple desktop study. Immediately after an air quality assessment, a report or statement will be assembled by the air quality consultant depending on the format of the survey, and it will then be ready to be submitted to the local authorities as part of the planning application.

Plan an Assessment Today

Whether you are dealing with concerns regarding your development plans, the local area, or specific elements such as chemicals, dust or odour, our air quality assessment and air quality management options are here to assist you. All of our team are educated, licensed and trained to a sufficient level, and in addition to that, our air quality consultants are experienced in operating within the parameters of planning applications, dealing with local planning authorities, undertaking air quality assessments, and handling all other relevant areas such as the use of dispersion modelling software.

An intention to cover all of the UK means that our team are just as present in Manchester as they are anywhere else, helped by a local understanding of the area and the local authority, from Manchester City Council to Salford City Council and every other local council in between. Likewise, our understanding of countless needs that relate to planning enables us to offer a selection of other inspections upon request. Start the process by speaking to Arbtech via our website, over the phone or by emailing us, and our team can help you by sending across a free quote and informing you of the cost before you commit to our air quality assessments and reports.