Air Quality Monitoring

Overview

Air quality across most of the borough is of a good standard, but there are four areas that have been identified as Air Quality Management Areas where air quality does not meet national standards. We undertake detailed air quality monitoring using both automatic air quality monitoring equipment and an extensive network of passive diffusion tubes to determine the levels of certain harmful pollutants (in line with government requirements).

Our Dedicated ‘Breathing Space’ Website

Our unique ‘Breathing Space’ website provides information on local air quality, traffic and health conditions. Our comprehensive air quality monitoring data (current and past) is available on the website, in addition to the numerous Local Air Quality Management reports that we have submitted to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The website can be accessed here: http://breathingspace.sefton.gov.uk/ 

We currently continuously monitor Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) and Particulate Matter (PM₁₀) at five sites in the south of the Borough. Further detail on these five monitoring sites is included in Table 1.

Table 1: Location of Continuous Pollution Monitors in Sefton

The monitors determine whether the concentrations of NO₂ and PM₁₀ comply with National Air Quality Standard Objectives (NAQS), set out in Table 2. The pollutant concentration data is available to view on the breathing space website.

Table 2 - National Air Quality Standards for Local Authority Compliance

Note – when viewing the air quality data from the five monitoring sites on the Breathing Space website, the levels of these pollutants will vary throughout the day and can show peaks for short periods of time when traffic is at its busiest around the morning and afternoon peak traffic hours. It is therefore important to note that the National Air Quality Standards that Sefton must comply with are based on annual, daily or hourly average concentration levels. As such, the observation of peaks in pollutant levels does not necessarily mean that air pollution is exceeding the standards.

For more information on our air pollution monitoring please get in touch via ETScontact@sefton.gov.uk