Air quality improvements

JUDITH TONNER

“Significant improvements” have been recorded in air quality at Monklands’ two pollution management zones, at Chapelhall and Coatbridge.

North Lanarkshire Council say that recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate PM10 – at the village’s busy Main Street and Lauchope Street areas, and in the Whifflet, Shawhead and Kirkshaws zone – now comply with national objectives and would not now newly require to be designated as action areas.

Councillors being updated on North Lanarkshire’s three- year air quality management plan at the latest meeting of the authority’s infrastructure committee were told: “This improvement is not due to a single factor.

“[ It] will be due in part to the improving emission standards on vehicles, improvements within the major road networks and the various actions undertaken by the council through previous air quality action plans.” area ( AQMA) status will not yet be revoked from either Monklands area or from a similar zone in Motherwell despite the “ever- improving picture” – as three years of constant results are required, along with new measurements for particulate matter PM2.5.

The report for councillors added: “Irrespective of whether there is a recommendation to revoke these areas, they will still be the three most polluted in the council area, and routine outlines 22 actions the council will take on pollution up to 2021 – including “work to improve bus provision”, improving emission standards from the council’s vehicle fleet, and encouraging a “shift away from private vehicles to public transport, walking or cycling for both leisure and commuter journeys”.

Councillors were told that North Lanarkshire has “significant air quality challenges, primarily as a result of road traffic emissions”; and that the latest plan “demonstrates the council’s

Progress Chapelhall’s Lauchope Street’s recorded nitrogen dioxide and particulate PM10 levels now comply with national objectives