New plans to help improve air quality in Thanet have been agreed by the council’s Cabinet and are now being issued to a range of organisations for any final comments.
Two Air Quality Management Areas have already been declared in Thanet. The first was around the Square in Birchington in 2006, with a second declared in the High Street, St. Lawrence in 2010. Extensive monitoring has been carried out at 23 spots across Thanet and showed that some could also exceed the targets set.
The government leaves it up to local authorities to decide how they want to tackle the problem of air pollution. Some declare small Air Quality Management areas, perhaps where the pollution is more limited, while others, such as Maidstone and Canterbury, have declared one in an entire urban area.
The council decided that the urban area of Thanet, including Birchington, Westgate, Margate, Cliftonville, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Minster, should all be included. The Action Plan sets out a number of different ways to help tackle air pollution, including investigating junction improvements, encouraging people to use public transport, promoting car sharing, cycling and walking.
Local people were asked to give their views on the proposals and officers will now be looking further at one suggestion made. That was to establish two scenic routes for traffic coming into and leaving Margate. One would run via Minnis Bay through Essex Gardens and up to Minnis Road, before going along the coastline, while the other would run from Essex Gardens, but go along Alpha Road before joining the coast road. More investigation will now be carried out to see if these routes would increase emissions over a wider area or reduce concentrations in Margate itself.
Cllr. Simon Moores, Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “This isn’t anything that people need to worry about. Generally, the air quality in Thanet is good and currently only exceeds the national guidelines at the two busy junctions that have already been declared Air Quality Management Areas. However, we know that there are other junctions that may not meet the guidelines in the future and it makes sense to take a broad approach to the whole district, so that we can tackle problems across Thanet, rather than perhaps moving them from one area to another.”
Now that the plan has been agreed by the council’s Cabinet, it is now being sent back to a number of different organisations who were involved in the original consultation for their final comments. This includes the government, Kent County Council, parish and town councils in Thanet, neighbouring district councils, local chambers of commerce and bus operators. Any comments they make will then be included in the final plan.
Strange there's no mention whatsoever of the air pollution coming from the worn out old 747's flying over Ramsgate isn't it ? I was outside the Belgian Cafe having lunch with a friend a few weeks ago when one went over that left everyone outside choking . The smell of fuel was so bad we had to leave our meal. Anyway.. luckily, thanks to Cllr. Simon Moores we can all sleep happily in our beds. Um.. but probably not for long.
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