Oxford sets out UK’s first localised air pollution target

Oxford City Council has set out plans for the UK’s first localised air pollution target, as part of the authority’s new draft Air Quality Action Plan.

It is believed that Oxford City Council will become the first UK local authority to set out a city-wide air pollution reduction target within its own draft Air Quality Action Plan -the action plan seeks to go further than the legal annual mean limit value for NO2 of 40 µg/m3, with a new local annual mean NO2 target of 30 µg/m3 by 2025.

Under its plan, the council is proposing to introduce its own local mean annual mean NO2 target of 30 µg/m3 to be achieved, or exceeded across all sites by 2025.  

The new Air Quality Action Plan 2021-2025 outlines the actions that the council will take to improve air quality in Oxford City between the years 2021 to 2025. The city has seen an average reduction of 26 per cent  in NO2, 31 per cent in Particulate Matter (PM10) and 36 per cent in Particulate Matter (PM2.5) at sites where air quality monitoring has been in place since 2013.

Oxford City Council has been calling on the government to meet its legal responsibilities by highlighting particular problems and proposing ten solutions in the development of Oxford’s Charter for Cleaner Air—the first formal cooperation of its kind between a local authority and Greenpeace UK and Friends of the Earth. This council has been calling on the government to tighten the legal target; with this action plan, it is setting its own tighter target.

Tom Hayes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Green Transport and Zero Carbon Oxford, said: "Through the City Council’s measures we have helped to reduce the most concerning air pollutant by 26 per cent over the last seven years. We need to go further and faster to clean air and stronger public health—as such Oxford City Council is setting a new Air Quality Action Plan which, for the first time, sets a target for the reduction of air pollution, indeed a significantly stricter target than the government’s own target. We believe that it is the first time any UK local authority has set a city-wide air pollution reduction target while discharging the statutory duty to create an action plan. By setting a stricter target than the government’s own target, we believe we are doubling down on our commitment to clean air, public health, and social justice.”

The new local target mean does not override any legal targets set by central government, rather it sets out a target that the city aims to achieve.