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Green fleets: Councils must look at the environmental impact of their vehicles It's almost impossible to open a newspaper these days and not read yet another report describing Earth as a ticking time bomb, thanks to climate change, allegedly caused by man. Pressure to act is only heightened when images of polar bears stranded on melting ice caps are streamed during news reports. This pressure is being felt everywhere, from central to local government, as each face challenges to reach targets designed to tackle carbon emissions and thereby arrest global warming. One way local authorities are coming to terms with the issue head on is by improving air quality, and with this is mind, the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) has produced a clean air toolkit. This is aimed at councillors and environmental protection officers, and provides practical examples of how councils can address the problem of poor air quality by highlighting innovative work already being undertaken by many councils across the country. ‘Everybody has the right to breathe clean air, and councils are committed to doing all they can to improve air quality for local people,' explains Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of LACORS. ‘Meeting national and European standards of air quality is a top priority for local government, nationwide, but this can only be achieved through positive action at a local level. ‘Addressing poor air quality is an important part of a council's environmental-protection work, and there are a large number of councils doing exciting and innovative things in this area.' The toolkit has been produced as a one-stop-shop for councils, with useful information and examples of a wide variety of projects and initiatives, which are helping ‘drive up' air quality across the country. Schemes featured in the toolkit include tighter planning obligations, car clubs, and ‘greening' council fleet vehicles. London boroughs, including Greenwich, Hillingdon, Islington, Richmond, Camden, Hackney and Croydon feature heavily throughout the toolkit. Greenwich LBC, a delivering cleaner air beacon authority, has ‘pioneered' the innovative use of the land-use planning system to both ‘finance air-quality management work and implement schemes and strategies'. This both mitigates against the impact of large-scale developments and raises awareness of pollution issues. The development of the Millennium Dome and Greenwich Millennium Village were both granted permission, but subject to the implementation of a low emission zone (LEZ). But it is not just London which has its finger on the pulse. In Manchester, the city council has been running an ‘idling vehicles campaign' since May 2005. Wardens are issuing fixed-penalty notices for drivers failing to switch off engines immediately after request. The council has also joined forces with Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive in order to address the problem of idling buses – a significant source of pollution. A partnership between four local authorities in South Yorkshire – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield – and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive has been formed to create Care4air. This is a social-marketing project designed to make residents more aware of air quality in the area, and promote behavioural change. Attempting to reduce the negative impact of staff travelling to work in Mid Wales, Ceredigion CC established a travel plan working group. Following surveys of staff and their travel-to-work habits, the do-it-with-dai website (www.doitwithdai.org.uk) was established to provide travel-related information on car sharing, public transport, walking and cycling. The website aims to increase people's travel choices and improve the ease with which they can access travel-related information. These are just a small handful of council initiatives established to tackle air quality, but there are hundreds in place, and more are being set up, hopefully now, according to LACORS, with the help of its toolkit. ‘Councils are committed to putting local people first, and are best placed to decide what will work best in their local area,' Mr Theobald adds. ‘Problems such as traffic congestion and industrial emissions will vary from place to place, so it's great that councils can now use the toolkit to see what is working in other towns and cities, and decide how they can best set about improving air quality.' For more information visit www.lacors.gov.uk.

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WHITEHALL

Invaluable tool for the air crew

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