Issue - meetings

ES20163

The Committee noted that the air quality figures for 2020 were impressive. The question was raised as to whether or not this improvement was because of the Covid pandemic. The Director for Environment and Public Protection commented that the reduction in emissions was probably at least in part related to the COVID pandemic in that during this period pollution levels had decreased primarily because of the reduced volume of traffic. The Portfolio Holder commented that although this was probably the case, it was equally true that there had been a long term trend showing an improvement in Bromley’s Air Quality.

Members noted that Asthma UK had commented that Bromley had the best air quality of all London boroughs.

A discussion took place concerning the number and positioning of air quality monitors within the borough and the Portfolio Holder stated that the air quality modelling that was currently taking place within the borough was good at predicting air quality across the whole of the borough; resultingly the Council did not need to invest in extra monitoring points.

The Director stated that an Air Quality Action Plan update report had been factored into the work programme and it was a possibility that this would come back to the Committee in September 2022.

The Chairman raised the matter of litter picking. Many residents were keen to do this to clean up their streets but were put off by the fact that in order to obtain purple sacks from the Council they needed to go through a registration process first. The Chairman expressed the view that this seemed to be an added level of bureaucracy which deterred members of the public and he asked for the registration process to be removed and this was agreed by the Committee.

RESOLVED that the Draft ECS Portfolio Plan be noted and that the registration process for purple sacks be ended.