Introducing Sefton's Clean Air Plan Strategy

Overview

The Clean Air Plan Strategy looks at the local area and the air quality to help develop actions to tackle poor air quality. In line with government requirements, we carry out detailed air quality monitoring at different locations across the Borough to find out the levels of pollutants that can harm the quality of the air and people’s health.  The locations where air quality has been identified as a current concern are called Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) – these are areas where the levels of air pollution are higher or close to the national air quality standards.

Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs)

There are currently four locations in Sefton where air quality has been identified as a current concern in terms of Nitrogen Dioxide (N0₂) and/or Particulate Matter (PM) levels. These are Sefton 's Air Quality Management Areas:

• Lathom Close, Princess Way, Seaforth (NO₂)
• Millers Bridge/Derby Road junction, Bootle (PM₁₀ and NO₂)
• South Road/Crosby Road North junction, Waterloo (NO₂)
• Hawthorne Road/Church Road junction, Litherland (NO₂)

Air Quality Action Plans

The Council has developed and implemented Air Quality Action Plans for all its Air Quality Management Areas. The plans include two types of action – site specific measures and general measures. The site-specific measures are targeted measures to address site specific air quality issues within individual Air Quality Management Areas. General measures provide a collective benefit across all Air Quality Management Areas, with less impact at each area.

Sefton’s latest Air Quality Status Report provides full detail on the air quality actions and is available below.

 Previous versions of the Air Quality Status Report are available online here - Air Quality Status Report

Despite the ongoing work of the Air Quality Action Plans to tackle poor air quality, there are still challenges ahead to reduce the levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) in some of Sefton’s Air Quality Management Areas.   Because of this, in 2018, Sefton Council asked Environmental Consultants AECOM to write a report to give us a better picture of transport related air pollution in Sefton. This report tells us about the different types of transport people use in Sefton and when people travel, what the air quality is like in the borough, what would happen if no further air quality improvement actions took place and if putting in a Clean Air Zone would improve air quality. The report said that a Clean Air Zone could have a positive effect on reducing NO₂ in and around the Air Quality Management Areas in Sefton.