The council are set to rent live air quality equipment for pollution-hit Ashbourne
NEW equipment to monitor Ashbourne’s air quality in real time is set to be installed in the town centre.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has committed to spending £10,000 on live air quality monitoring equipment in a bid to quash the harmful levels of pollutants being measured on key roads in Ashbourne.
The equipment, to be leased from Earthsense by the district council, would track key pollutants on Buxton Hill, which was formally designated a public health hazard requiring urgent action by central Government in
April 2021.
As part of that aim, the council is looking to rent a real-time monitor, with a public portal displaying the results, for 12 months for up to £10,000.
This would track the levels of nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulates.
Derbyshire County Council is buying three of the same monitors, also to track air quality issues in Ashbourne, though the specific locations within the town have not yet been decided.
Meanwhile, district council aims pushing for a 20mph zone in Ashbourne are believed to be “curtailed” by the county council’s new position that it would not back the proposed zones.
This comes after public consultations relating to planned 20mph zones in Buxton and Long Eaton, following mass opposition from residents, a bus company and the police. A meeting is going to be held between council officials and mineral and logistics operators in the new year, in a further aim to curb pollution in Ashbourne, which is largely tied to HGV traffic, council research has found.
Traffic lights are also being considered in Station Street, which the county council believe will help to “act as a gateway to control northbound traffic through Ashbourne”.
At its worst point on Buxton
Road, nitrogen dioxide has been recorded at 50 per cent higher than the deemed acceptable legal level. This is 57.4 ug/m3, over an accepted level of 40.
An August public consultation found the four most popular actions aimed at quashing pollution in Ashbourne were: Engagement with minerals and logistics companies, bus service improvement plan actions (bus priority through the town and a mobility hub), real-time travel information for key routes through the town to distribute traffic, and “modeshift STARS” - a travel plan programme in which schools would seek to encourage sustainable travel for teachers, parents and pupils.